Melbourne [Australia], August 31 (ANI): Aussie pacer Josh Hazlewood is in no mood to tone down his intensity as he makes a successful return to action after a long injury lay-off, with a lengthy Test season and some white-ball games awaiting him.
Hazlewood will be included in the ODI squad for Zimbabwe and South Africa ODI tours in September, which will be unveiled on Tuesday, and the pacer has earmarked featuring in “two out of three” ODIs in each series.
Hazlewood made a sensational return against Bangladesh at Darwin, picking up seven wickets, including a six-wicket haul, in his first match in the format for more than an year and was impressive at Mackay as well, though he could manage just one wicket during a two-day pace assault.
“I think still the best way forward for me is to play as much as I can within reason,” Hazlewood told reporters at the launch of Play Cricket Week in Sydney as quoted by Cricinfo.
“We have got two ODI series before that Test match series, so it might be playing two out of three in both of those. I think once you are at that intensity, which we’re all at now, it is trying to maintain that as best we can,” he added.
Hazlewood, who missed the entirety of the home Ashes and the ICC T20 World Cup, is “very pleased” with his current physical state.
“I am very pleased with where I am at physically, I have done a lot of work, probably the 10 weeks leading into that series, it was probably our last big training block before what is to come. Very pleased to come out the other side pretty much unscathed,” he added.
Australia’s white-ball squads for Zimbabwe and South Africa ODIs will be different as their skipper Pat Cummins is only likely to be a part of the latter. The selectors could also get creative around the concurrent red-ball Australia A tour of India, with a few players possibly playing that series instead of the ODIs, with an eye on Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour to India from January next year.
Australia’s Test squad for the South Africa series, starting from October 9, will be named next week, with the hot topic being whether Marnus Labuschagne, who is yet to hit a Test century since the 2023 Ashes tour to UK, retains his spot in the team. The batter managed the highest score of 31 in his home Test series against Bangladesh. Whether he is in the ODI squad could offer some clues on the selectors’ plans for him.
Whoever will be forming the Aussie top-order will be keeping an eye on news updates around Proteas lead pacer Kagiso Rabada, with the news emerging that he is racing against time to feature in the Tests after being ruled out of ODIs due to a hamstring injury.
Speaking on Rabada, his Aussie counterpart Hazlewood termed him an “unbelievable athlete”.
“We do not know exactly how bad the hamstring is. He seems to recover from any sort of niggle pretty quickly. He is an unbelievable athlete. So I guess we don’t think about it too much this far out. Things will become clearer as we get closer. But I am sure the batters will rather face someone else than KG,” he said. (ANI)
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