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Keeping Things Simple Is The Reason Behind Boland’s Unimaginable Numbers Vs Virat Kohli

Bhargav Dixit

Scott Boland celebrates dismissing Virat Kohli. [Source: @sameera2802/X]Scott Boland celebrates dismissing Virat Kohli. [Source: @sameera2802/X]

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The first time when Virat Kohli faced Scott Boland, during the latter’s ODI debut in Perth, he had scored 21 (22) against him without getting beaten even once at one of the fastest pitches in the world. It was during the third ball of their next encounter that Boland managed to induce an outside edge of Kohli’s bat but couldn’t dismiss him as the ball landed short of Aaron Finch.

That same month, Kohli faced Boland a total of five times across limited-overs cricket to amass 102 (75) at a strike rate of 136. Kohli, who hit five fours and four sixes off Boland across two high-scoring series, was hardly troubled by the right-arm bowler.

While the former Indian captain never faced the Australian pacer in white-ball cricket since then, nine years down the line, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Kohli is Boland’s bunny in Test cricket. An absolute walking wicket who keeps on edging the ball behind the stumps. The probability of Boland listening to Hindi songs is close to nil but he can dedicate the song ‘Teri Keh Ke Lunga’  from Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1’  to Kohli at will.

"We've got pretty set plans on how we want to bowl to him [Virat Kohli]. He sort of feels like he leaves a lot and then he wants to play the ball once he gets in. So, once he gets in, we just want to switch our lines a little bit to fifth stump and it's working at the moment," Boland told Fox Cricket after dismissing Kohli on Day 1 yesterday.

Scott Boland’s Unimaginable Stats Vs Virat Kohli

For those who don’t know, a total of 10 bowlers have dismissed Kohli five or more times in Test cricket. Boland, who became the 10th bowler on the second day of the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 Test in Sydney today, is the only one to do it within seven innings. Having dismissed Kohli six times across 17 innings, former England all-rounder Moeen Ali was better than the remaining eight until Saturday.

Boland, who averages a meagre 7.6 against Kohli in the ancestral format, is miles ahead of the next best in this list in Australia captain Pat Cummins (27.2).

Scott Boland's Knack of Dismissing Legends

As a 35-year-old reserve bowler, there is no going into a safe house around the fact that Boland wouldn’t end up with several hundreds of wickets by the end of his international career. However, for someone whose Test average of 18.25 is the highest (min. 50 wickets) in the last nine decades, keep an eye on that metric till he plays at the highest level.

On a parting note, Boland can be more than just proud of himself at knowing how nine out of his 54 Test wickets involve dismissing legends. With Australia set to host England for the Ashes later this year, Boland’s encounters with another modern-day great in Joe Root will hog immense limelight. Why? Because Boland’s average of 25.50 is only behind Ryan Harris’ 14.40 among bowlers who’ve dismissed Root at least four times in Test cricket.