Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood is eager to spend more time alongside fellow pacer Scott Boland in the Test arena as he prepares for his long-awaited return to red-ball cricket. The experienced seamer is expected to be available for Australia’s upcoming Test series against Bangladesh in Darwin, marking his first appearance in the format since July 2025 after a frustrating spell on the sidelines due to recurring hamstring and calf injuries. Hazlewood’s fitness issues forced him to miss the entire Ashes series, but the 35-year-old is now closing in on a comeback at a crucial stage of Australia’s packed Test calendar.

The last time Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Scott Boland featured together in a Test match was during the day-night fixture against the West Indies in Jamaica. Australia opted for an all-pace attack in that contest, leaving out a specialist spinner. Before that, Hazlewood and Boland had only shared the field once in Test cricket, during the 2023 Ashes Test at Edgbaston. With Nathan Lyon expected to return from injury for the Bangladesh series, Australia are likely to restore their frontline spinner, creating stiff competition for places in the pace attack. 

“I’d love to play more with Scotty. We’re obviously a little bit similar, but I think there’s still a lot of differences in our bowling. Every time he’s come in, he’s done unbelievably well. His career just keeps getting better and better the older he gets,” Josh Hazlewood said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. The veteran pacer also pointed to Australia’s demanding international schedule as a reason why the team will require several fast bowlers throughout the next year and a half.

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“I think there’s enough opportunities in the next 12 months, 18 months for us to play a lot of cricket hopefully together, that’d be a nice one to tick off. But I think as four quicks, we’ve got Ness [Michael Neser] and Doggy [Brendan Doggett] there as well. So I think we’ll have to lean on all six at some point in the next sort of 18 months,” he added.

Australia’s chair of selectors, George Bailey, recently revealed that the team deliberately rested Josh Hazlewood during the white-ball tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh to carefully manage his workload ahead of the demanding Test season. Hazlewood admitted the extended preparation period has allowed him to focus entirely on building the workloads required for Test cricket instead of balancing different formats.

“I think this is probably the first time we’ve actually had a lead in to a Test without any cricket in terms of games. It’s been big days, Tuesdays, Thursdays mostly, with some other stuff filtered in around that, and then last week we had a few back-to-back days, Tuesday, Wednesday, and again next week I think back-to-back,” he said.

“Leading into other Test series and Test matches, you’re playing T20, you’re playing one-dayers, you’re travelling, so it’s tough to fit those bowling sessions in. This has been sort of tailor-made for a Test match, which I think should work out well. It’s just trying to replicate a day in the field of Test cricket. Really, it’s bowling multiple spells in a day. It’s bowling back-to-back days,” he explained.

Despite Australia’s exciting schedule over the next 12 months, Hazlewood insisted he is taking nothing for granted after his recent injury troubles. His immediate priority is returning fully fit for the opening Test against Bangladesh before turning his attention to the high-profile overseas assignments that follow.

“I think every time you look ahead in sport it can bite you pretty quickly. I’ve always done that. I’ve looked at it like that literally day in, day out for the last few weeks here, ticking boxes, getting workloads in. Next week’s another tick, and then I guess once you get through all that, then you look at Darwin. So everything else is a long way away. Just take it as it comes,” Josh Hazlewood said.

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Looking further ahead, the Australian quick acknowledged that the dressing room is highly motivated by the opportunity to conquer three of the toughest destinations in world cricket.

“This group’s been together for quite a long time now, the majority of it, anyway. The big series are obviously England and India. I haven’t won in South Africa either, so there’s three that are coming up that are a few boxes to tick off there for not just me but from this whole playing group. I guess that’s been a driving factor during this prep. Some real big Test series, and they’re all away. Tough competition, and hopefully we get the job done,” he concluded.