‘Pretty annoying’: Inside Josh Hazlewood’s fight to keep his Test career alive

Josh Hazlewood is prepared to share his Test spot with Scott Boland as he embarks upon a 12-month odyssey that will also provide a definite answer about whether his 35-year-old legs are still up to the task. Injuries have cruelled multiple summers for Hazlewood, most recently hamstring and Achilles problems that ended his hopes of taking part in the Ashes last season. In his absence, Boland has been a superstar for Australia, leading selection chair George Bailey to speak of the Victorian as a genuine competitor with Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc to be first picked in the Test XI.

This time round, Hazlewood has taken a leaf out of Glenn McGrath’s book and kept his motor running since the Indian Premier League with consistent bowling spells. These include a recent spate of sessions in Brisbane where he and his fellow quicks have replicated the rigours of Tests, with multiple spells in a day over back-to-back days. Hazlewood admitted to this masthead that a preparation focused solely on Test cricket, with the top-line quicks missing from tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh and likely to also be rested during white-ball games against South Africa, Zimbabwe and England later this year, make the prospect of 21 Tests in 12 months more realistic.

“We’ve had the opportunity to focus purely on red-ball workloads and build-up,” Hazlewood told this masthead. “That’s the main thing, we haven’t had a white-ball series or a T20 series or tournament, whereas in the past we’re often coming off the back of that. “Sometimes it is helpful to get match practice, but this time we could really space and plan it to a tee and tick all those boxes.

“There is a little bit of luck to it. Some games you bowl 40 overs, others you bowl 25, so there’s definitely luck involved in that regard. But we’ve been doing these longer days up here where we bowl two spells – have a longer spell, cool down, maybe have a bat or a field [and] then come back later in the session to bowl another spell.

Then back-to-back days as well.” Asked about the supposed rivalry with Boland, Hazlewood was frank in saying that all hands would be required on deck at various times, and he was comfortable with the idea that the workload would be shared at times. “It’ll definitely take a squad effort over the next 18 months in particular, just from a quick bowling point of view, but a whole squad, extra batters, extra keepers, extra bowlers,” he said.

“Last year there was no Pat, no me and two or three guys stood up at different times. We had ‘Doggy’ [Brendan Doggett] there, [Michael] Neser, [and] Scotty. So, as well as you plan for different things, it’s hardly ever that the same three quicks are fit to play.

“It’d be great if three can play quite a lot, and then you have another three ready to go, but it just doesn’t happen these days. There’s so much cricket. If we can get ahead of the curve and manage guys through this period, and have other guys there ready to pick up the slack, that’s going to serve us pretty well in the long run.”

Hazlewood was extremely frustrated and initially emotional about succumbing to a hamstring strain while playing for NSW a matter of days before the first Ashes Test in Perth. That injury was compounded by an Achilles strain that ruled him out of the rest of the series, but Hazlewood never considered international retirement. “It was frustrating, really,” he said.

“It was as good as I’ve felt. Every time I’ve been bowling the last five or six years I’ve felt great until something goes wrong. [It was a] similar situation there.

We bowled three days in a row in that Shield game. If it was two days, then a break, then another day, you probably get through and you’re fine. “I know it was right towards the end of that game when I probably had one more spell to bowl.

So it feels like you’re really close a lot of the time. In a few of those Test matches as well, I’m getting through the Test match then just having some muscle damage picked up on the scan after I’ve tried to have a bowl again a few days later. “It’s happened a few times in Australian summers, but I feel like in the winters I’ve got through the Test matches I’ve had to play.

Whether that’s something different in Australia I’m not too sure, but I feel like I’m playing all winter then missing two months in summer, which is pretty annoying.” Hazlewood confirmed he had been approached to play in the Hundred this year, despite the fact it clashed with the two Top-End Tests against Bangladesh next month. While adamant that Australian duty will continue to come first for him, Hazlewood said he struggled to see how he, Cummins and Starc could play much in the BBL unless the calendar was rapidly overhauled.

“You finish a Test series and probably the last thing you want to do as a quick is front up to bowl four overs in a BBL game a few days later,” he said. “As much as we want to be a part of it, whether we change the timings or push BBL later, which probably doesn’t suit school h