As the India vs Australia T20I series shifts to Hobart for the 3rd match, India will have one less Aussie player to worry about with Josh Hazlewood set to skip the rest of the games in order to play domestic cricket which will help him prepare for the upcoming Ashes series, set to start from November 21 in Perth.
“Heading home tomorrow. I’ll have a week to prepare for the Shield game against Victoria, then we head to Perth for the first Test. It’s important to get that red ball rhythm in, bowl consecutive overs, spend big days in the field – tick that off before the Test season starts,” Hazlewood said after his match-winning performance against India in the 2nd T20I series in Melbourne on Friday.
The 34-year-old Hazlewood was the chief architect in bringing about India’s downfall at the MCG, taking 3 wickets for 13 runs in his allotted 4 overs. He snapped up Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma with India reeling at 32/4 inside the 5th over of the powerplay.
Hazlewood also opened up on if he tried anything different with his approach, saying that playing continuous cricket has helped.
“Not a lot different, really. My approach here and there, as always, everything’s improving. I think just playing continuous cricket has helped – we’ve been up north playing a few games, then over in New Zealand, now here, West Indies in the winter… I’ve just been going from one series to the next, playing most of the games, resting when needed. Everything feels in a good place and ready to go,” he said.
India and Australia will next play 3 more T20I matches at Hobart, Gold Coast and Brisbane with the hosts currently leading the series 1-0 after the 2nd T20I which they won by 4 wickets. The first match of the series in Canberra was called off due to inclement weather..
