Hazlewood enjoying his bowling as the WTC Final beckons, claiming it is the best he has ever bowled in his career.
Hazlewood enjoying his current bowling patch: ‘I’m bowling probably the best over my career’.
As he prepares to rejoin Australia’s lineup for the World Test Championship final against South Africa, Josh Hazlewood believes he is bowling better than ever.
Hazlewood is hoping to fill one of the few voids on his resume at Lord’s after missing the 2023 WTC final against India while recuperating from an injury. He hasn’t played in the Test team since suffering a calf injury against India in Brisbane, which followed a side strain earlier in the series.
After a stellar IPL season with champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), in which he claimed 22 wickets, Hazlewood and Josh Inglis arrived in the UK late. He eased back into bowling following the journey from India on Saturday, sending down about five overs at a modest pace during Australia’s optional training session in Beckenham. He was scheduled to work out more thoroughly on Sunday at Lord’s, where he will operate at nearly full pace.
“I was obviously quite close last time [in 2023],” Hazlewood said. “I just had more of an interrupted IPL leading into that, and then had a few little issues going on, so wasn’t quite up to scratch, but I feel in much better place this time around.
“And I think in any format, my numbers over the last two years have been pretty good, so have got a lot to fall back on in terms of skill wise. I still feel like I’m bowling probably the best over my career and it’s just a matter of the body holding up, which it has been in the last few months.”
Despite playing 10 straight Test matches between mid-2023 and late 2024, Hazlewood has spent a lot of time behind the scenes attempting to determine whether his numerous injuries in recent years have a common theme, with an emphasis on the strains of bowling back-to-back days in shortened Test series.
“I think the intensity is probably a big one for me to tick that box,” he said. “We’re definitely adapting training to sort of get those back-to-back days in, get a big day, followed by another bowling session the day after and things like that, just to try and try and get our head around it and put ourselves in the best possible position we can be.”