One of the Australian dependable pacers, Josh Hazlewood has wished to take the vacant vice-captaincy role in the Test cricket.
While Tim Paine is currently leading the Australian Test side, the Test vice-captain is yet to be announced. In next, Australia will play two Tests against Pakistan in UAE before starting their home Test season against India (four Tests) and Sri Lanka (two Tests). While the Australian selection committee will decide the deputy Test captain prior to the Test series in UAE, Hazlewood has wished to take that responsibility.
In an interview with the Australian Cricketers Association, Hazlewood said about the Test vice-captain, ‘‘I would love to do it. As I said, get one of the bowlers on there, get our point of view of what’s happening out on the field and so on. It would be exciting to get the role.”
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The 27-year-old has played 40 Tests after making a debut in December 2014. The right-arm pacer has taken 151 wickets with the average of 26.84.
Talking more about the Test vice-captaincy in the present Australian cricket team, Hazlewood said, “I have been with the team for quite a while and have played 40 odd Test matches. It’s quite a young group when you take some of those senior guys out. I think being a bowler; it would be good to have one of us in the captaincy. You know it’s quite exciting. There are a couple of guys who are good candidates. Whoever gets it would do a great job with Paine.”
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After the suspension of the captain Steven Smith and vice-captain David Warner, Tim Paine is leading the Test and ODI sides while Aaron Finch has led the T20I side. In the recent games, Finch has played the deputy skipper role in ODI while Alex Carrey has played the deputy skipper role in T20I.
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Talking about the other options for the captaincy role in Australian cricket, Hazlewood has named all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and the top-order batsman Peter Handscomb.
The Australian pacer said on that, “Some of the younger guys like Mitch Marsh and Peter Handscomb may not have cemented their sports in all the three formats of the game, but they done well in captaincy with their state teams.”
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