Josh Hazlewood says Australia’s young quicks have set a high bar to start September’s UK tour and he’s hoping to “feed off” their energy as he eyes redemption at the next T20 World Cup.
Hazlewood was Australia most economical bowler at the tournament’s most recent edition in June and has already set his sights on the next one in 2026 after the disappointment of their Super Eight elimination.
The star right-armer missed last week’s Scotland leg but returns to the squad for the three-match T20 series against England after overcoming a minor calf strain, as does Matt Short following the birth of his son Austin.
The pair will both be available for Wednesday’s series opener at Southampton (3.30am Thursday AEST) where selectors could be tempted to bring Short straight in at the top of the order given Jake Fraser-McGurk’s struggles against Scotland.
“We’ve got a couple of young guys around now to feed off that energy…”
“It was the smallest little nick you can do so I pretty much only had four or five days off running and then got back into it,” Hazlewood told cricket.com.au after training strongly at The Rose Bowl of Monday.
“I just did it having a bowl in Sydney, so unfortunate, but now we’re back up and going and looking forward to the series.”
Hazlewood is the only one of Australia’s ‘big three’ quicks to make the trip for the T20 matches, with Mitchell Starc to link up with the squad for the five ODIs that follow, while Test and 50-over skipper Pat Cummins is staying at home to manage his workloads ahead of a blockbuster five-Test summer against India.
The experienced paceman is adamant he won’t be taking England lightly, who like Australia, have also had a significant revamp since the World Cup.
Phil Salt will captain the hosts with Jos Buttler absent with his own calf strain, while Moeen Ali (who announced his international retirement on Sunday), Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Tom Hartley, Chris Jordan and Mark Wood are the World Cup squad members missing this week’s series.
“It’s just a matter of building for the next World Cup really,” said Hazlewood, with reigning champions India and Sri Lanka slated to host the next men’s global T20 tournament less than two years’ time.
“We didn’t finish how we would have liked at the last one.
“We’ve got a couple of young guys around now to feed off that energy and it’s just about nailing down your role in the team and getting a few wins, obviously against England at home is a pretty big series.”
While he didn’t watch too much of the Scotland series sweep as he was in transit to London, Hazlewood liked what he saw from Australia’s new-look pace attack, as well as Josh Inglis, who he believes will now be a permanent fixture in the side with selectors appearing to have moved on from veteran wicketkeeper Matthew Wade.
“It’s a nice little crop of quicks we’re starting to build now and that’s probably in all formats,” Hazlewood said.
“People are putting their hand up – we saw ‘X’ (Xavier Bartlett) last summer with that unreal debut so it’s good to see … it keeps us older guys fit and ready to go.
“So it’s always good to have them nipping at your heels.”
Hazlewood bowled a short spell off his full run two days out from the first of three T20Is against England, as did Riley Meredith in a positive sign that he’s overcome the soreness that kept him out of the final two matches in Edinburgh.
Australia captain Mitch Marsh said they wouldn’t risk the Hobart Hurricanes speedster given his injury history, with allrounder Aaron Hardie more than happy to step up with the new ball again as he did in Meredith’s absence against Scotland.
“I got a bit of a taste for it last year in South Africa and India, I opened the bowling there, so it’s a bit of a new role for me, I haven’t done it too much back home, but I certainly enjoy it,” Hardie said.
“It’s a really good challenge bowling up the front; obviously they (Scotland) had some good batters at the top of the order and we’re expecting similar from the English to come pretty hard at the top.”
