Scott Boland has done little wrong for a Test career that has been short but sweet.

Very sweet indeed.

The second Indigenous men's Test cricketer to represent Australia didn't run to the wicket for Australia with a red ball in hand until past his 32nd birthday, a decade since first appearing for Victoria.

But the Gulidjan man's extraordinary bowling average of 20.34 is the lowest for an Australian to play a minimum of 10 Tests in the post-war period.

No bowler has bettered that mark in the past 80 seasons. Not even the greats of Lindwall, Lillee, McGrath or Warne.

Since Boland's fairytale debut at the MCG produced a 24-ball 6-7 in the second innings of the third Test during the 2021-22 Ashes series, his average has slipped slowly and slightly higher.

That Melbourne Test not only presented Boland with his maiden baggy green cap, but the next two matches in Sydney and Hobart, in the absence of frontline seamer Josh Hazlewood, gave him an opportunity that produced 18 wickets at 9.55 runs per wicket.

It seemed that like nothing could stop the Boland juggernaut towards greatness.

However the now 35-year-old has played just 10 times out of Australia's last 30 Test appearances.

Hazlewood was fit for the next Test overseas, and the humble Indigenous man - who became just the second player in 145 years of Test cricket to capture 18 wickets or more in his first three appearances while still averaging single digits - was a spectator behind the boundary line more often than on the field.

That came to a head last season in Australia and on the following New Zealand Test tour, after Boland all but carried the drinks for seven Tests against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand.

Subsequently his inactivity over the summer has involuntarily contributed to him sitting on the sidelines injured.

The ruthlessness of captain Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc and Hazlewood – referred as the big three – affected Boland a lot more off the ground than the injury he suffered in an attempt to return to frequent bowling.

"I was expecting to play at some stage," Boland told cricket.com.au.

"The coaches and selectors were saying, 'You'll probably get a go at some stage, so just be ready'.

"It's hard, especially when my mindset is, 'It's seven Tests, I'll get a crack at some stage'.

"But (the big three) are just so resilient and they kept bowling teams out quickly, that they just don't need that much of a break.

"So I was stuck between being fresh for the game where I didn't want to over-bowl in the nets, and I reckon I just didn't get my bowling right.

"I probably under-bowled a bit."

Team mates gather around Boland following the debutant's first Test wicket during the 2021 Boxing Day clash against England at the MCG. (Image: Cricket Australia)

But Boland accepts part of the blame; he did not want to leave Test match squad on match days.

Even when Victoria was playing a Sheffield Shield encounter or an opportunity to roll the arm over for just 24 balls in a Big Bash T20 for the Melbourne Stars came up.

He was essentially prepared to take the field in seven Tests over a possible 35 days, but played none.

For the months of December and January, Boland delivered just 62 balls in competition, and he didn't bowl at all in a match December

It upset Boland's bowling appetite and the right-armer's mantra as the workhorse of his team's attack.

He had begun the season by sending down 158 overs for Victoria in less than two months ahead of the Test summer series against Pakistan, suggesting the 34-year-old was ready to go that summer.

"I came back here (to Victoria) and every time I'd bowl 40-50 overs (per Shield game), it was just too big a spike," Boland said.

"Then my knee got sore from those jumps, and my foot was a bit sore.

"It's my fault that I just didn't bowl enough.

"Going forward this season, I want to play more games.

"Even the last couple of seasons (before last) I always wanted to keep bowling.

"I'm keen to play as many games (as possible) before the Australian summer to make sure my body's in a really good spot."

Boland finished the domestic season in February and March with 107.2 overs behind him, but strangely a tendon in his left knee and, additionally, his left ankle were struggling to handle the increased bowling load and his body hinted that it was on the verge of breaking down.

The injuries were later attributed to a new gym routine that Boland took on to boost his explosiveness.

The decision to correct components of short-term stiffness and niggly injuries before heading for his first-ever county stint at Durham proved ill-fated.

The barrel-chested, front-on paceman stint in England lasted just 13 overs.

Not even a full day for the first-division club he intended to represent for four months.

By tea on the first day of Durham's season opener, Boland was battling to stand up and could hardly walk back to the pavilion on his own.

Boland sends down one of his 78 deliveries for Durham in his only English County Championship appearance before breaking down with injury earlier this year. (Image: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

"I got back up, hobbled out onto the ground, and I knew I was in trouble," he said.

X-rays revealed that a tear in his right foot's plantar fascia, the thick connective tissue that supports the arch on the bottom of the foot, would require at least 10 weeks of rehabilitation, putting paid to a well-intended county venture.

Boland says he left Australian shores after Victoria's final Shield appearance and a week before his first scheduled county match feeling "totally pain free".

After nearly four months since returning to Victorian preseason training, Boland has gained a perspective that an enforced break from match bowling may have primed him for Australia's five Test summer against India.

"It feels a bit like a blessing in disguise," Boland said of the injury.

"I still would have loved to have played and experienced a county season.

"I haven't played (much) T20 cricket for three years, so I was really keen to play in the (UK's T20) Blast.

"But I think coming home, having a big pre-season, which I have not had for three or four years as well, having four months in the gym and building up my bowling slowly, I think it's going to benefit me going into the Tests.

"I would have come home from England pretty tired – I would have bowled a fair bit and I've been sore.

"I think it's going to be a good thing in the long run."

As far as setting the bar high again goes, Boland's build-the-man-a-statue moment on that day at the MCG has left him needing an Olympic pole vault to scale the kind of heights he reached to clinch the Ashes urn for Australia and pocket the Johnny Mullagh Medal.

His performance saw him claim Player of the Match honours, modelled from the belt buckle of the 19th-century Indigenous star allrounder worn playing on the Australian Aboriginal tour of England in 1868.

Boland is put through his paces at a Victorian preseason training session at St Kilda's Junction Oval. (Image: @vicstatecricket/Instagram)

It came after Boland discovered his Aboriginal ancestry a decade ago, confirmed through a pile of missing records.

"I first learned about my Indigenous heritage after my grandfather passed away," he said.

"There was this gap in our family tree and my mum was able to find out that we had some Aboriginal heritage (on the Edwards' side of the family)."

Boland's mum's dad was adopted and after his passing, their lineage was linked to the Gulidjan mob around the Colac area between Geelong and Warrnambool.

The pride in his new-founded heritage coincided with a form surge and talk of national selection.

Boland made his one-day international debut soon after in 2016 for his ability to land the ball on a spot, the perfect short-of-a-good length delivery that was instrumental behind a fateful ascension to the Test side via his consistent wicket-taking abilities at Sheffield Shield level.

Playing ODIs or T20Is – where he only appeared 14 and three times respectively at international level – is no longer a priority to sustain a Test career for as long as he can maintain his body.

Understanding the biomechanics of fast bowling better while recovering through post-pool sessions, cold compression therapy, and sauna treatment, Boland is doing everything he can to ensure he is fit and ready not only for the next Border-Gavaskar series but for the return Ashes series in 2025-25.

He also accepted a role in the offseason as playing bowling coach for the Melbourne Stars when available from Test duties, that was activated while recovering from injuries during the T20 outfit's preseason visit to Darwin in August.

"I'm using this preseason to try to keep myself fit and strong for the next two or three years – however long I can keep going," Boland said.

"I want to keep going for as long as I can.

"Broad and Anderson proved that if you keep putting up good numbers, it doesn't matter how old you are.

"I just want to keep doing that – I don't want to put a barrier on when I'm going to finish up."