JOSH BACK TO BEST
Hazlewood revels in triumph after shrugging off stress fractures
After spending so much time this series seeing replays of past Australian Ashes failures Josh Hazlewood hopes he’s provided the ultimate vision to be on TV loop from now on. The Australian fast bowler let out a full year’s worth of emotion as he charged down the pitch, arms raised and screaming with joy after snaring the wicket of Craig Overton to win the fourth Test at Old Trafford and seal Australia’s Ashes victory. He didn’t even turn around to see umpire Kumar Dharamasena raise his finger, so the three red lights after the Englishman called for a review just meant Hazlewood could celebrate twice. “It was amazing. I guess it will be replayed a lot,” Hazlewood said at The Oval, still smiling brilliantly as he recalled his magic moment. “We’ve been watching the 2005 Ashes in every rain break and lunch break, and maybe they’ll play 2019 now. “To be that person to take that last wicket, when it was starting to get darker, the time was ticking along, it was exciting. “It was the build-up of that day, the five days, the whole series, and emotion flies at the end.” Hazlewood is emotionally steady most of the time but he admitted this win meant a little more, beyond the mere match circumstances as the stodgy England tail threatened to take a second straight Ashes victory away from the Aussies. In January, after four Tests against India, Hazlewood broke down with the fast bowler’s curse – a stress fracture in his back – for the second time in two years. In an Ashes year it knocked him around, knowing how much work was ahead in order to play the role in England he’d craved. “Any time you get a stress fracture, it hurts a fair bit, not just the pain of it, but missing so much cricket, and doing so much work off the field to get back,” Hazlewood said. “I did so much work to get back, playing was a bonus, and to do what I’ve done this series was just a cherry on top.” The 28-year-old has returned in amazing fashion, taking 18 wickets in his three Tests, second only to Pat Cummins (24) who has played all four. It’s the culmination of a lot of “cold winter mornings in Caringbah” where the quick refined his action to help his back, and to bowl just different enough in England, using seam and not swing movement, to make a massive difference. “I changed a few things in my action ... and I am hitting my lines pretty well this series,” he said. “Keeping it simple.”