Any time I bowl in England I'm reasonably confident, says Hazlewood ahead of WTC Final
New Delhi: Ahead of Australia facing South Africa in the World Test Championship final, fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood said he always feels reasonably confident while bowling in Tests in England and added that he will increase his pace in the run-up to the one-off clash starting at the Lord's on June 11.
In 12 Tests in England, Hazlewood has picked 52 wickets at an average of 26.07. The fast bowler took five wickets in his most recent match at the Lord's, which happened during the 2023 Ashes series against England.
"Any time I bowl in England, I'm reasonably confident. I've had some good tours here over the last 10 years, and Lord's in particular. I haven't lost before at Lord's yet as a player, certainly in red-ball cricket for sure, and we have had a couple of good wins there over the years."
"Today is sort of post-flight and just to get moving. I will probably nail down a few more overs tomorrow and then over the next few days, tick a lot of boxes,' Hazlewood told ICC on Saturday.
Hazlewood hasn't played a red-ball game since he featured in the third Test against India at The Gabba in December 2024 due to a calf strain. Then seamer Scott Boland took over and went on to pick a 10-wicket haul against India at Sydney. This means that there's a toss-up between Hazlewood and Boland for the third seamer's slot at Lord's.
What does help Hazlewood's case is Hazlewood that he arrives in London on the back of some overs under his belt while winning IPL 2025 for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, including overcoming a minor shoulder niggle.
"I ticked over some good overs just before the (IPL) Final in Ahmedabad in different weather than this, and it was quite a tough session. And then obviously, every time you play a game in the IPL, you're probably going to get almost seven or eight overs in, if you really want to."
'So in and around with warm-ups, and obviously the four overs in the game. And we bowled second a lot of the time in IPL, so that was sort of two warm-ups, so you can squeeze in overs here and there, and things are going pretty well."
"Everyone looks in good shape. We've all been in different parts of the world playing or training over the last couple of months, so it's good to get everyone together and catch up with everyone yesterday and the day before and get all on the same page moving forward," he concluded.
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