Late starter Hazlewood quick to show his class
Tourists’ plan to keep tall paceman in reserve proves master stroke as he takes key wickets
Earlier this English summer, Josh Hazlewood was doing his best to avoid the Australia cricket team. Omitted from the World Cup squad – and then overlooked again when an injury replacement was needed – Hazlewood was a little fed up.
“I’m trying to stay away from it as much as I can. It’s pretty tough,” he said in June, when he was still in Australia. “I haven’t watched too much, to be honest.”
Hazlewood had good reason to feel aggrieved. He has a terrific one-day international record, and opened the bowling when Australia won the 2015 World Cup. His absence reflected both his recovering from a back stress fracture sustained at the start of the year and, more than anything, Australia’s priorities.
From introducing the Dukes ball to Sheffield Shield cricket, to sending players to county cricket and then arranging an Australia A tour during the World Cup, Australia have earmarked the Ashes as the focal point of this summer. In this context, it made sense to leave Hazlewood at home for the World Cup, for all that he believed he would have been ready to try to retain the trophy.
Instead, Hazlewood’s introduction to the English summer came through the Australia A tour in June, when his
workload was managed assiduously once again. He was even omitted from the opening Test: Peter Siddle and James Pattinson had greater experience of bowling with the red ball in England this summer, and Pat Cummins had greater rhythm.
But while Hazlewood’s omission seemed baffling in the context of a record of more than 160 wickets at 27 apiece, Australia always saw him – like Pattinson – as an asset to be managed over the series. For both these bowlers – and Australia – three Tests at full pelt would have represented a good result.
When Hazlewood was entrusted with the new ball from the Pavilion End, he set to work on providing the first of those. His first two deliveries induced Jason Roy to flash outside off stump; so did his third, which seamed away and claimed Roy’s edge.
It set the template for his spell. This represented, in essence, pared-back new-ball bowling. Hazlewood neither swung nor seamed the ball prodigiously – indeed, he swung it only half as much as his norm with the new ball throughout his career. But his simple mastery of line and length, allied to the bounce he generated from his height and a frame honed as a junior javelin champion, only needed to be augmented by a scintilla of movement.
When Joe Root played around a straight delivery – this one seamed a little in, rather than out, as to Roy – it added to Hazlewood’s impression of Glenn Mcgrath at Lord’s with a dollop of extra pace. Throughout his opening spell, Hazlewood’s average speed was a shade over 85mph. He was so remorseless that he conceded just five runs from his six overs while snaring these two wickets.
In a sense, Hazlewood was just doing as he does – and, it is true, there was nothing unexpected about this spell, as terrific as it was.
But seldom has he so suffocated batsmen for oxygen. In his opening spell, Hazlewood pitched 72 per cent of balls on a good line and length, the highest figure of his career. In Cricviz’s ball-tracking database, which begins in 2006, only four spells from any bowler have ever been so relentlessly on a good line and length.
“Josh has been outstanding. I know he was disappointed to be left out of the first Test, but to come back and bowl the way he did today – hats off,” purred Nathan Lyon. “Josh has been a world-class bowler for a long time. I don’t think he’s got the rewards he’s deserved yet. I think Josh is up there in the top three bowlers in Test cricket.
“His control – hitting that nagging length – but having the skill to go both ways, in and out. But then he’s got a pretty strong bouncer as well. And it’s always usually on the money.”
Even when he returned, Hazlewood remained parsimonious. All told, he yielded only 2.6 runs an over from 22 overs while adding the wicket of Joe Denly with an exquisite delivery that kissed the edge.
Until 2004, Australia’s desire to win in India consumed all else. Now, that mantle has been passed to winning an Ashes series in England after 18 barren years. Hazlewood’s treatment before the series reflected as much. And his belated introduction to the 2019 Ashes provided another reason to suggest that diligent planning may culminate in this generation of Australian cricket’s India 2004 moment.