Australia pacer Scott Boland believes that his performance has convinced Australia's selectors to retain him for the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Delhi despite the expected return of Mitchell Starc following a finger injury.
Australia slumped to an embarrassing loss by an inning and 132 runs inside three days in Nagpur Test where Boland, despite going wicketless, was tidy with 0-34 from 17 overs as Australia.
Boland was not initially set to play in thru the first Test, but Josh Hazlewood's Achilles injury has opened the door for the speedster. Starc missed the series opener with a finger injury and is set to be Australia's second fast bowler in Delhi.
The selectors may consider going with three frontline spinners, should all-rounder Cameron Green, who is also recovering from a finger injury, return to the side.
"I felt like I bowled well, but when you're bringing in someone like Mitchell Starc, who's a gun in these conditions and bowled really well in Sri Lanka and Pakistan hopefully I made the selectors' job a little bit tougher than what it originally was," Boland said.
"I felt like I contributed to our game plan and had a pretty good spell in conjunction with Toddy (Murphy) a couple of times, so I'm pretty happy with how they came out," he added.
The second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will commence at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on February 17.