Josh dives into Jimmy's bag of tricks

Having established himself as Australia's Test spearhead, Josh Hazlewood has turned to limited-overs specialist James Faulkner to learn the tricks of the T20 trade.

As the only fast bowler to play in all eight Tests this summer, both home and away, Hazlewood is Australian Test cricket's marathon man.

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But now the New South Wales product is adapting to the shortest format of the game, and while some principles carry across, the towering quick says Faulkner is teaching him how to bowl the variations that have made the Tasmanian so potent in T20 cricket.

"That top of off (stump), challenging the batsman (philosophy) is still important," Hazlewood said on Saturday.

"That time doesn’t last very long before they're running at you, and lapping, all this sort of thing.

"You've definitely got to try and be one step ahead as much as you can be and try and predict what the batter is going to do each delivery.

"The change-ups are important here. Not just one but two or three.

"I think we've seen James Faulkner has quite a few changes – he's one guy I go to in the nets to talk to about when to bowl them as much as anything, but definitely practising that (slower) delivery as much as possible."

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There's arguably no-one better to learn the different deliveries of a T20 bowler from than Faulkner, whose inventory holds half a dozen different deliveries, and is growing.

"Faulkner's got the back of the hand (slower ball) but that's tough to nail down," Hazlewood said.

"You've simply got the off-cutter and leg-cutter and stuff like that, but trying to get them at different paces is the key – you can bowl them hard into the wicket or try to take the pace off them.

"You've got to try and weigh up what works in different conditions on different wickets and what's going to be important in those games."

Hazlewood had not played a T20 match for two years when he stepped out onto The Wanderers last week, and the Test length he's used so effectively in the five-day format got banished to Bloemfontein and back.

From his four overs Hazlewood went for an even 50, but the right-armer is a quick learner.

In Sunday's warm-up match against the West Indies, he was the pick of Australia's bowlers, taking 3-13 from four overs, including a hat-trick.

"I think on that wicket we just tried to hit a length with that new ball, (instead of) floating it up," Hazlewood said after play at Eden Gardens.

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"I think any full balls were easy to score off. We just tried to hit the top of the stumps and (I was) lucky enough to get a couple straight and they missed them.

"I'm pretty happy with how they came out tonight. There's still a few things to work on but we're improving as time goes on."

Against the Windies, Hazlewood displayed some of the variations he's been working on with Faulkner, and the speedster says coaching could be a future for the allrounder.

"I think definitely in the shorter format," Hazlewood said. "He's played a fair bit of it (limited-overs cricket) in recent years.

"He's always a good one to go to, to talk about bowling in this format.

"It's just a matter of trying to shut him up after asking him a question sometimes."