Star pace bowler Josh Hazlewood’s return to the RCB camp after an injury break is a blessing for the franchise and good preparation for him, as he said that the intensity he is building up here will be helpful during the World Test Championship final against South Africa in June. Having recovered from a shoulder injury, Hazlewood played in the IPL, helping RCB reach their first final since 2016 with an 8-wicket win over Punjab Kings as well.
“…I’ve got to be bowling, you know wherever I am in the world, I’ve got to be bowling getting ready for that game (WTC final) anyway,” said Hazlewood after featuring in his first IPL game since April 27. “There’s no better place than I think out in the middle, obviously you’ve got to bowl more, more hours of training from time to time to build up for a Test, but to get that intensity right up, there’s no better place than the IPL.”
However, Hazlewood, who used the movement off the pitch, is known for his relentless spells in Test cricket, but over time, he has also taken his T20 game to the next level as well. He dismissed in-form Shreyas Iyer and Josh Inglis a well.
“I don’t bowl too much differently in Test match cricket than tonight,” he said.
Talking more about his recovery phase from the shoulder injury, Hazlewood said, “(I have) worked really hard the last few weeks on the shoulders to get back and got some good overs into it the last sort of 10 days, and yeah it is feeling good to be back. So, I was happy with tonight, the wicket helped obviously didn’t it? Not having to bowl fast yorkers or anything like that. So yeah it is feeling good to be back.”
“We’ve just got all bases covered, it feels like. I think any one of the five or six bowlers can bowl at any moment of the game, whether it’s the start, middle or end,” said Hazlewood. “It obviously helps having Bhuvi, who has so much experience, quite a calm customer, so that sort of rubs off on the rest of their attack. I’m probably pretty similar to Bhuvi as well in that regard, everything’s quite relaxed, quite calm, focus on your skill and try and execute that.”
“I think maybe a few of the younger guys in the attack have picked up on that and taken it into their own games.” There was swing and seam on offer and RCB made the most of the conditions and bundled out the opposition for 101 before chasing the small target in 10 overs. There was a little bit of seam movement, the bounce was probably a little bit inconsistent, so we sort of utilised that as best we could. Yeah, the conditions were great to bowl first,” he further added.
“Then obviously Suyash went for the middle order, he has bowled really well in spells throughout the whole tournament, but has been a little bit unlucky in the wicket-taking front, but obviously tonight got on a roll,” Josh Hazlewood concluded.
