Team success over personal milestones: Hazlewood
Brisbane: Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood is just five wickets away from the significant milestone of 300 Test wickets. He maintains that the team’s success is his priority, rather than personal achievement. The team is preparing to play 21 Test matches over the next 12 months.
Hazlewood missed the home Ashes series last summer due to a hamstring injury followed by a calf issue. He is now set to return to Test cricket after a 13-month hiatus when Australia faces Bangladesh in the first match of the series in Darwin.
If Hazlewood reaches the 300-wicket mark in Darwin, he will join an elite group of Australian fast bowlers who have achieved this feat—Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, and Pat Cummins. However, Hazlewood emphasized that upcoming tours of England, India, and South Africa remain the primary motivation for Australia’s main bowling attack.
“I think whenever you look too far ahead in the game, it can quickly land you in trouble. That’s how I’ve always approached it. For the past few weeks, I’ve really been thinking day-by-day—getting the small things done, managing my workload. I’ll take another step forward next week, and then, I suppose, once all that is done, I’ll think about Darwin. So, everything else is a long way off right now. Just take things as they come.” “This group has been together for quite some time now—at least most of the players have—and there are big series coming up against England and India. I haven’t won a series in South Africa either, so these three upcoming series… there are goals to be achieved there, not just for me, but for this entire playing group.”
“Throughout this preparation, and in the months leading up to it, this has been a major source of motivation for me,” Hazlewood told reporters during Australia’s training camp on Thursday. “These are massive Test series, and they are all being played on foreign soil, so the competition will be tough, but hopefully, we’ll perform well.”
Workload management will be crucial during this busy 12-month schedule. In this context, Hazlewood expressed a desire to play alongside fellow fast bowler Scott Boland, who performed brilliantly in his absence during the Ashes.
“I’d love to play more with Scotty. Obviously, we are somewhat similar, but I think there are still significant differences in our bowling styles. Whenever he’s had the chance, he’s been incredible. His career just keeps getting better as he gets older.”
“I think we’ll have plenty of opportunities to play a lot of cricket together over the next 12–18 months, which would be great. But beyond the four main fast bowlers, we also have Ness (Michael Neser) and Doggy (Brendan Doggett). So, I believe we’ll need all six of these bowlers at some point over the next 18 months,” he added.
After spending a few weeks training for Test match workloads at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, Hazlewood expressed confidence in the meticulous preparation he has undertaken for red-ball cricket.
“I think this might be the first time we’re heading straight into a Test series without playing any lead-up matches.” The training days have been long—mostly Tuesdays and Thursdays—with other activities interspersed. Last week, we trained on consecutive days (Tuesday and Wednesday), and we will likely do the same next week.
“Before Test series and matches, you play T20s and ODIs and travel a lot, so finding time for bowling sessions is difficult. This preparation has been ideal for Test cricket, and I believe it will yield good results. The aim is simply to replicate the match-day environment of Test cricket. Essentially, it is about bowling multiple spells in a single day and bowling over several consecutive days,” he concluded.
