Scott Boland expects Brendan Doggett to help inspire a new generation of Indigenous cricketers, as a slice of history beckons for the duo when the Australia XI is named for the Ashes opener in Perth.<\/p>\n
The fast bowlers are on the verge of shattering the glass ceiling and becoming the first pair of Indigenous cricketers to be included in the same Australia side as spots open up with Josh Hazlewood joining injured captain Pat Cummins on the sidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Only two of Australia\u2019s 471 men\u2019s Test players are Indigenous \u2013 former fast bowler Jason Gillespie and Boland \u2013 with Doggett poised to join the all-too exclusive club.<\/p>\n Boland backed Doggett \u2013 whose Indigenous heritage traces back on his mother\u2019s side to the Worimi people from around Newcastle \u2013 to make an impact on more than just the Ashes if he is selected to face England in the first Test starting on 21 November.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully Brendan does get the nod and that happens,\u201d Boland said on Monday about the prospect of two Indigenous players being selected in the same Australia side. \u201cIt\u2019ll obviously be really special for him and his family, and the Australian Indigenous community.<\/p>\n \u201cYou watch AFL or you watch NRL and there\u2019s numerous [Indigenous] guys who are playing in the same team or playing for Australia. I think it just gives kids a real pathway that they can see that there\u2019s two guys playing, then hopefully they want to take that step into playing cricket because it isn\u2019t as big in the Indigenous communities as AFL and rugby league. Hopefully we can try to shift it.\u201d<\/p>\n Brendan Doggett closes in on becoming Australia\u2019s third Indigenous men\u2019s Test player after a strong start to the 2025-26 season. Photograph: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n An Indigenous side toured England in 1868 as the first squad in any sport to represent Australia overseas, while Boland and Doggett were part of an Aboriginal XI touring party that followed a similar path to commemorate the 150th anniversary.<\/p>\n Gillespie, who previously coached Doggett at South Australia, became the first men\u2019s Test cricketer of Indigenous heritage when making his debut in 1996 and claimed 259 wickets in 71 matches.<\/p>\n Trailblazer Faith Thomas was the first Indigenous player to represent Australia at Test level<\/a> when lining up against England in 1958, and Ash Gardner is a current star of the women\u2019s red- and white-ball national sides.<\/p>\n Boland \u2013 a proud Gulidjan man \u2013 has played 14 Tests for Australia after a stunning debut at the MCG during the 2021-22 Ashes series.<\/p>\n The 36-year-old has taken 62 Test wickets at 16.53 to prove he is more than just a useful backup to the \u201cBig Three\u201d of Cummins, Hazlewood and left-arm quick Mitchell Starc.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be missing two great players like Josh and Pat, but I think our bowling stocks have been really strong for quite a while,\u201d Boland said. \u201cNo one\u2019s been able to break in with the resilience of Starcy, Pat, Josh and myself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be an exciting time because a new guy or two will get a look in, but they\u2019re not inexperienced guys. Brendan\u2019s coming in, he\u2019s 31 years old, he\u2019s played a lot of first-class cricket now, he knows his game.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Doggett is firmly in the frame to be handed a baggy green after being selected in Australia\u2019s initial squad for the first Test<\/a> while Michael Neser has since been added in place of Hazlewood.<\/p>\n The 31-year-old was first included in an Australia Test squad in 2018 but fell back into the pack as a string of injuries took their toll.<\/p>\n Doggett has returned to the front of the fast bowling queue<\/a> as a standout at first-class level since moving to South Australia in 2021.<\/p>\n The right-armer claimed 33 Sheffield Shield wickets including 11 scalps in the final as South Australia broke a 29-year title drought<\/a> last season, and has 13 wickets at 14.69 in two first-class matches<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he brings a real skill,\u201d Boland said of Doggett. \u201cHe\u2019s a fast outswing bowler and he\u2019s someone who can bowl really long spells, he bowls a lot of overs. When he\u2019s playing for South Australia, he can bowl 20-25 [overs] in a day.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s someone who\u2019s tremendously fit and, if he gets the nod, it\u2019ll be exciting to see him play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott Boland expects Brendan Doggett to help inspire a new generation of Indigenous cricketers, as a slice of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-290616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}