As he heals from mild soreness in his previously damaged side, Australia’s fast has returned to bowling at nearly full intensity.
Australia is in a hurry Josh Hazlewood believes he has a chance to play in the World Test Championship final against India if he can go through some hard training sessions in the next week after exiting the IPL early due to side pain.
Hazlewood played only three IPL matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore after coming late owing to an Achilles problem that caused him to miss Australia’s whole four-match Test series with India in February and March, as well as the three-match ODI series that followed.
The decision to withdraw Hazlewood from the IPL early was made as a precaution, and scans revealed no injury to his side. He has missed four Tests in the 2021-22 home Ashes series and three more last summer against the West Indies and South Africa due to two side strains in the last two years.
However, he was able to bowl at home in Sydney before joining the squad in England last week. On Tuesday, the group held their first formal training session in England at Formby, West Lancashire, when Hazlewood went nearly full throttle following a soft bowl on his own shortly after landing in England.
He told the ICC that he is close to full fitness but would need to bowl for a week before being deemed ready to play in the World T20 final against India, which begins next Wednesday at the Oval in London.
“My fitness is pretty good,” remarked Hazlewood. “Basically, it’s just a matter of ticking off every session from here until that date.”
“In T20, you bowl a lot of different balls every over.” A wide yorker to a bouncer to a slower ball, and [the side] simply got a little jammed up, and scar tissue from past injuries flared up.
“It settled down fairly quickly.” I had a week off, and I didn’t quite get back to full strength for [the] IPL, but the last few bowls have been terrific, and I’ve been building up nicely.”
