When asked if he thinks this will be the strongest English batting lineup to visit Australia in recent years, Josh Hazlewood said, “Yeah, definitely.” That is part of the reason why he wants to stay at the top of his game for the Ashes this winter. Hazlewood, who played four out of five Tests in the last edition, is on track to play a Sheffield Shield game ahead of the series instead of easing up.
Among Australia’s big three, Hazlewood has played the most games across formats this year. Unlike Starc and Cummins, he opted against sitting out the recent white-ball series against South Africa in Australia’s Top End. That, he says, is the way that works best for him. Australia’s next assignment comes in October, with away and home white-ball series against New Zealand and India, respectively, across October and November. The Indian series will finish less than two weeks before the opening Ashes Test in Perth. This means September will be the only true downtime before a busy window, but Hazlewood would rather sneak in another practice game to keep his momentum intact.
“It felt like over the last 12 months, the best way for me to go about it is just keep on ticking over, keep playing, not having too long off bowling,” Hazlewood said at an event to promote Play Cricket week. “I find… getting back to that intensity and volume is quite tough for me. So if I can just keep staying up there, match intensity as long as I can, then that’s sort of the best way for me to go about it.”
He didn’t downplay his opposition as part of the phoney wars that begin months before the Ashes. In fact, he was open about the challenge, admitting it will be a ‘tough challenge’ to contain England, who arrive with an evolved Bazball approach. To call Hazlewood’s remark self-effacing would be unfair to England, whose level-headedness against India was clear.
“England has obviously been quite flat wickets recently, the last few years, and it’s been a really dry summer as well, so they are probably starting to get tired and spin now,” Hazlewood said. “I think [Brook] will adapt. He’s a good player. He’s at the top of the rankings for a reason, and he’ll be a tough challenge.”
Hazlewood, in particular, seemed curious to see how Harry Brook would fare in his first Ashes tour of Australia, free of any baggage. And while Root carries plenty of experience down under, he will be desperate to fill what remains the biggest gap in his decorated career: the absence of a Test hundred in Australia.
“When [Root] first came out, it was a little bit of a different attack. It was probably [Mitchell] Johnson and [Ryan] Harris and [Peter] Siddle. Gaz [Nathan Lyon] has been around a long time now, so he was probably there, but we sort of just jumped on the back of that.
“I think a fresh face like Harry Brook might find it easier. There’s no baggage behind him and he can just come out and play with freedom as he does. Joe’s probably in the form of his life as well. So they’re an unbelievable batting line, to be honest. The top seven have done really well… so it’s a challenge.”
While he would love nothing more than additional game time, Hazlewood knows he is capped on the number of Shield matches he can play. He turned out for New South Wales in one game before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year and hopes to stick to the same figure this time as well.
“The Test [only] guys will play more than one [Shield game]. They’ll probably play two or three, but everyone’s on different programs,” he said. “I used it last year and I’ve sort of found that it’s very beneficial. Time on the field, multiple spells in a day, it’s sort of hard to replicate at training. So, to get that before a Test series is pretty pivotal, I think.”
