The Ashes battle for the shoebox

Australia were switched on. England's bowling plan was broken concepts, drunken doodles, and a 3-year-old explaining quantum physics.

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Perth, 3rd Innings:

England bashed Scott Boland out of the 2023 Ashes.

It was Australia’s first Bazball experience, and their worst white-ball bowler struggled with England’s ODI tempo. They were charging him, and had some luck, but Boland produced errors without taking wickets.

In that series, he had a bowling average of 115, roughly 100 more than his career mark at the time. With Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins out at Perth in the 2025 Ashes, England thought they could target Boland again. In the first innings they did, and on the second day he was in action again the next time England batted.

Before lunch on Day 2, Boland was all over them, but they survived one of his unplayable spells untouched. Australia gave him the ball again after the break, so England would have known they just needed to survive him for a shorter period of time.

They didn’t. He took quick wickets, and England went from in front to behind just like that. They never came back.

Jason Gillespie has been saying that Boland lands his deliveries in a shoebox. Such is the tightness of his groupings on the wicket. Just outside off, angling in, with a heavy ball, and the ability to seam violently forever.

England know where Boland is going to bowl, and their plan on the last tour was to upset him by using their feet or batting out of the crease. This time, they upset themselves. Australia were very clear about what they wanted to do; England still don’t know.

Boland is unsexy, boring and repetitive. He is everything England don’t want to be, and the good news is, in that one thing, they succeeded.

In 2020-21, Boland averaged 9.55; in 2023, it was 115; and this time, it was 25.

Perth, 1st Innings

Before Boland had changed the script, Mitchell Starc took seven wickets. Even though England still had the better of the first half of the game, the reason Australia were close to them was because of the tall southpaw’s incredible work.

In this series, he was on another level. In terms of usage, he was like a combination of Josh Tongue and Jofra Archer — England’s two best bowlers. Separated from his genius quartet, he was the leader of an attack that historically didn’t always need one. Now he had to stand up, and for three Tests he had 25 wickets and two fifties. When that run slowed, it didn’t matter, Australia were 3–0 ahead and the series was over.

SCG, 3rd Innings

In the final Test, he took England’s last wicket, making it 31 for the series at just under 20, and he did this all by bowling really fast, despite being almost 36 years old.