The door is open for Scott Boland to make a triumphant return in front of his home MCG crowd, despite the Victorian’s mounting case to be considered an equal of Australia’s premier pace trio.

Captain Pat Cummins conceded there was little more selectors could offer Boland by way of encouragement after Josh Hazlewood edged him out for the third Test against India.

The 35-year-old ended an almost 18-month Test drought with a five-wicket performance in Adelaide where he dismissed all but two of India’s top six across both innings.

But Cummins insisted Boland’s involvement in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign is not necessarily over, raising the prospect of the right-armer earning a recall on Boxing Day three years on from his famous debut there in 2021.

“Of course you say all those things (about Boland being unlucky) – it’s the truth, he’s amazing every time he plays,” said Cummins.

“We absolutely love him around the group, he’s one of all of our favourites. It’s just about (telling him to be) preparing for the MCG because there’s a good chance we might need you.

“History suggests there’s always some form of natural attrition throughout the Test series. The good thing is he’s playing a Test earlier in the series than he probably thought he would coming into the series.

“He’s shown his standard is still super high. He knows he can take wickets against these guys. So it’s just about setting himself up for the last two Test matches.”

Boland’s snub in Brisbane comes amid his increasingly strong case he should be considered a peer, rather than a back-up to, the Cummins-Hazlewood-Mitchell Starc group.

Going off numbers alone in the three years since his famous Test debut in 2021, Boland has out-bowled all three of Hazlewood, Cummins and Starc, the trio who were broken up for the first time in 10 Tests due to Hazlewood’s side strain in Adelaide.

Despite featuring in less than a third of Australia’s Tests since his Test entrance (11 out of 35), Boland’s bowling average of 20.42 (for 40 wickets) is superior to Hazlewood’s (63 wickets at 21.00), Cummins’ (108 at 24.84) and Mitchell Starc’s (105 at 28.01) own marks during that same period.

In fact, only three bowlers to have played at least five Tests during those three years – Kyle Mayers (21 victims at 14.04), Jasprit Bumrah (106 at 16.57) and Kagiso Rabada (106 at 19.59) – have better bowling averages than Boland.

Those figures do not paint the complete picture. Boland’s supreme average would undoubtedly have risen had he featured in Tests on back-breaking pitches in Pakistan in 2022, turning surfaces in Sri Lanka (later that same year) and India (in 2023, when he played only the first Test), or even if he had played more than two Tests during the 2023 Ashes (when England’s Bazballers consigned him to two wickets at 115.50 for the series).

But for Tests played in Australia, Boland’s numbers are even more impressive.

In seven home Tests, Boland has snared 33 wickets at 13.54 which tops Hazlewood (37 wickets at 15.64 in eight home Tests), Cummins’ (63 at 18.84 in 14) and Mitchell Starc’s (58 at 24.25 in 14) efforts.

Only Bumrah (who has 12 wickets in two Tests at 11.25 during this series) has fared better on the shores.

India’s approach against Boland, compared to Cummins and Starc, in Adelaide was notable; Rishabh Pant was particularly aggressive, mirroring England’s tactics during last year’s Ashes, which suggests other teams are identifying him as potential weak link.

But that is not being borne out in his returns. India No.3 Shubman Gill, who was out lbw to Boland in the first innings of the second Test having also been dismissed by him in last year’s World Test Championship final, insists the right-armer is as skilful as the other Aussie pacemen.

“He is definitely a good bowler,” Gill said of Boland.

“With the three fast bowlers (Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood) obviously playing for 8-10 years constantly for Australia, they have a lot more experience in him just because they’ve been playing for that long.

“When there is a key decision being made, you always look at this key aspect – who has more experience in certain conditions?

“Skill-wise he’s right there, but just the experience that those three have is a lot.”

NRMA Insurance Men’s Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Brendan Doggett, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal