Aussie paceman out to add WTC title to a career laden with World Cup and domestic trophy wins
Decorated Hazlewood eyes missing piece after IPL success
Josh Hazlewood is in a "much better place" after his latest injury setback than he was two years ago as the paceman works to ensure he doesn't miss a second straight World Test Championship final.
Hazlewood began fine-tuning his preparation for the Test decider on English soil on Saturday morning UK time after a delayed arrival into London due to his Indian Premier League triumph with Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
The right-armer, who appears to be locked in a selection battle with Scott Boland for the final spot in Australia's pace attack to face South Africa, sent down a handful of overs off his full run to Marnus Labuschagne, who is also fighting to retain his place in the team following the return of Cameron Green to the squad.
Hazlewood overcame a shoulder niggle to return to India for the IPL playoffs, taking a wicket and closing out the last over of the final to help RCB to a breakthrough title, his second in the world's most lucrative T20 league after securing his first with Chennai in 2021.
The 34-year-old missed the end of the Australian summer and tour of Sri Lanka after straining his calf in Brisbane but made an impressive competitive comeback in this year's IPL where he finished with the third most wickets for the tournament.
Most Wickets
IPL 2025
| Player | Total |
|---|---|
1
Prasidh Krishna
M Krishna
|
25 |
|
2
Noor Ahmad
N Lakanwal
|
24 |
|
3
Josh Hazlewood
J Hazlewood
|
22 |
|
4
Trent Boult
T Boult
|
22 |
|
5
Arshdeep Singh
A Singh
|
21 |
|
6
Sai Kishore
R Kishore
|
19 |
|
7
Jasprit Bumrah
J Bumrah
|
18 |
|
8
Vaibhav Arora
V Arora
|
17 |
"As long as the shoulder came good, I was always going to head back over, and I was pretty confident that it would," Hazlewood said at Australia's training base in south London on Saturday.
"It was a good couple of weeks; everything went to plan as best it could.
"To get the chocolates in the IPL was another amazing experience in the final – anytime you play at that ground (Narendra Modi Stadium) and it's a close to a full crowd, it's pretty cool."
Winning another final at the Ahmedabad venue would have no doubt brought back fond memories for the Aussie quick after helping his country stun hosts India to claim the ODI World Cup in 2023.
With a T20 World Cup, another 50-over crown in 2015, an Under-19 World Cup and two IPL titles under his belt, as well as Sheffield Shield, One-Day Cup and Big Bash wins for Sydney Sixers, the Test Championship is the one missing piece in Hazlewood's decorated career.
He narrowly missed the last WTC final win over India at The Oval after failing to overcome separate Achilles and side issues, with Boland getting the nod and taking five wickets in Australia's 209-run triumph.
"I was quite close last time, I just had more of an interrupted IPL leading into that and wasn't quite up to scratch," Hazlewood said of missing the 2023 final.
"But I feel in much better place this time around, and I think in any format, my numbers over the last two years have been pretty good, so I've got a lot to fall back on.
"Skill wise, I still feel like I'm bowling the best I have in my career and it's just a matter of the body holding up, which it has been in the last few months."
Hazlewood revealed he had tweaked his training regime after a frustrating few years of injury setbacks, which has included three side strains, with a focus on bowling on consecutive days to help his body adapt when switching between formats.
"The intensity is a big one to tick that box, so we're definitely adapting training to get those back-to-back days in; a big day followed by another bowling session the day after to try and get our head around it," he said.
"Dicing up training and bowling workloads a little bit differently and hopefully we get a different result."
He said Saturday's session, in which he bowled about five overs before having a hit and doing run throughs, was about getting moving, while Sunday's session would be more intensive as he builds towards Wednesday's Test showpiece at Lord's.
"With it being a final, it's all about this week and putting a good performance over the next few days and then into the game," he said.
"I ticked over some good overs just before the (IPL) final in Ahmedabad, in different weather than (England's), so it was quite a tough session.
"Then every time you play a game in IPL, you're probably going to get almost seven or eight overs in … with warm-ups.
"I had a number of times where I bowled back-to-back days at high intensity with the game usually being one of those."
World Test Championship Final
June 11-15: South Africa v Australia, Lord's
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Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster. Travelling reserve: Brendan Doggett
South Africa squad: Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne