The last time Australia won the ICC T20 World Cup, it was during the 2021 edition when pacer Josh Hazelwood played his part in Australia’s dominance in UAE along with spinner Adam Zampa. Hazelwood would finish with 11 wickets to be among the tournament’s top five leading wicket-takers with Zampa taking 13 wickets in the marquee event. While Hazelwood was ruled out of the first two Tests of last year’s Ashes with a hamstring strain followed by a Achilles soreness during rehab ruling him out of the entire series, the 35-year-pacer has started training and now confident of making to the Australian squad for this year’s T20 World Cup to be held in India and Sri Lanka starting next month.
“Everything’s going to plan. We took a few extra weeks once we couldn’t make the Test matches. I had a couple of bowls off the half-run last week. Running’s going well, all the strength stuff’s going well so, yeah, on track. My gym and everything is still mostly the same, but I think purely from a bowling workload, leading into the next red-ball game, do as much as we can in terms of just dicing it up a little bit differently,” Hazlewood told ESPNcricinfo in an interview.
In the last 24 Tests played by Australia, Hazelwood has only played in ten Test matches. In the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Hazelwood only played in two Tests before a side strain and calf strain ruled him out of the series. A calf injury would also see him being ruled out of the Sri Lanka tour last year. The pacer, who is currently ranked ninth in ICC World Rankings for bowlers in Tests, spoke about how he has been facing back-to-back injuries and how his body has been responding to the injuries.
“Sometimes, when one thing goes and the other thing resurfaces,” Hazlewood said of the back-to-back injuries this season. “But it (the ankle) was probably another thing I’d been just managing over the last few years, and then it just creeps up. I guess when you start back up, sometimes your body doesn’t like that stopping and getting it going (again). So probably not as much of a dive into these two little niggles. But we’re still working on implementing training a little bit. My gym and everything is still mostly the same, but I think purely from a bowling workload, leading into the next red-ball game, do as much as we can in terms of just dicing it up a little bit differently. Potentially bowling two or three days in a row and then having four or five days off and then doing that again, rather than Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.” Hazelwood added.
The Australian pacer is currently ranked 11th in ICC Rankings for T20I bowlers. Last year, Hazelwood played a stellar role in Royal Challengers Bengaluru;s maiden IPL title win with his tally of 22 wickets in 12 matches for the team. The pacer, who turned 35 earlier this month, forms the part of the Australian pace attack consisting of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and others and spoke about how white ball cricket is a different story. “(With) white ball, you can really sit down and nut it out because you know you’re involved for four or ten overs pretty much,” he said. “But Test matches are more like, okay, if it’s like a Perth or Melbourne Test, then you are fine to bowl in the next Test, but if it’s like a Sydney Test, where Barrell (Scott Boland) bowled 50 overs, then that’s a different story. With the red ball, it is a bit more on the run. You can map out the way you want to train to get ready for that first one, but I think once the Tests start then it’s sort of play it by ear and have those conversations on the go. I feel young in that attack. (But) I’m certainly realistic. I still think the hardest hurdle for me is the first one. So if you get over that first one, things can roll on. But if you play too many in a row, obviously weakness starts to creep in. So if you sort of sense that coming, yes, you might have to sit one out.” Hazelwood said.
