Follow UsThere was a concern over Josh Hazlewood's fitness after he sustained a side strain injury during his stint at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The pacer came into the tournament after recovering from an Achilles heel injury, that kept him out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and then missed a huge chunk of matches for RCB too.
Hazlewood eventually had to pull out of the tournament after playing just three games for the franchise and is now focussed on the WTC final against India, which gets underway on June 7 at The Oval. He remains confident of making the XI for the one-off Test.
"My fitness is pretty good, and it is just a matter of ticking off every session from here until that date (June 7), basically," Hazlewood said.
"We will probably have anywhere from three to four more sessions - bat versus ball and then a couple of longer days in the nets as well or centre wicket down in London - so it is just ticking off those last few boxes and pulling up well from every session.
"It was pretty close [to full pace today]. I came down for a little bowl yesterday just to loosen up and to get a bit more out of today's session, so it is feeling good.
"After a long few travel days it is always a case of the first one getting the cobwebs out and stretching out and doing some run-throughs just to get the blood flowing.
"It is always good to get the first one out of the way and when we get to London we will steam in."
Hazlewood, who bowled just nine overs in the IPL this season, feels the side issue could have been caused due to him trying out different sorts of deliveries in the tournament. "In T20 you are bowling a lot of different balls every over," Hazlewood noted.
"A wide yorker, to a bouncer, to a slower ball and it probably got jammed up a little bit and a bit of scar tissue from previous injuries flared up. It calmed down pretty quickly, I had a week off but I didn't quite get back to going 100 percent at IPL. But the last few bowls have been good and I have been building up nicely."
Australia have a busy schedule in England. After the WTC final, they play five Ashes Tests against England, starting June 16 at Edgbaston. Although he would love to play all six Tests in the summer, Hazlewood feels he is unlikely to feature every time, but insists Australia have excellent back-ups.
"If you asked that question three years ago I probably would have said I would have liked to play all six but it is just different now," Hazlewood said.
"It is just so tightly consumed together now and coming off not an ideal build up … but we have got enough quicks here and a couple of others playing County cricket to cover all bases.
"Pat [Cummins] is perhaps looking at [playing] all six potentially depending on how much we bowl in each, so you play it by ear a little bit. It is such a dense schedule, it is tough."
Speaking at the other fast bowling options Australia have at their disposal, Hazlewood said, "Ness [Michael Neser] was on the [Ashes] trip last time in 2019, Sab [Sean Abbott] has always been there or thereabouts as the next cab off the rank and Scotty [Scott Boland] - everyone knows [how good he has been] in the last three or four years.
"It feels like that is what you need to win a big series like this and with six Tests in particular we are probably going to lean on every one of them."