Hazlewood thrives in ‘nerve-wracking’ captaincy debut

With precious little captaincy experience to his name, the unflappable Josh Hazlewood admitted he was nervous before his captaincy debut in the second Dettol ODI in Sydney.

Hazlewood became Australia's 28th men's ODI skipper when he was handed the reins with Pat Cummins' workload being managed ahead of effectively five back-to-back Tests beginning on November 30. 

While the fast bowler was elevated to the Test vice-captaincy in 2018 and has been around the limited-overs 'leadership group' for some time, prior to Saturday's match at the SCG Hazlewood had never led a side in his 14-year professional career.

You have to go back all the way to school cricket for the last time he had the 'c' next to his name.

However the 31-year-old walked away from his first match in charge with a win as Australia romped to a 72-run victory under Hazlewood's watch. 

And the quick said it was an enjoyable experience.

"It was pretty exciting and a little bit nerve-wracking," Hazlewood told reporters after the match. 

"I certainly enjoyed it and it was a bit of a challenge there while that (James Vince and Sam Billings) partnership was going. And then we got a couple of wickets and that set the game up."

Hazlewood's leadership contribution proved to be decisive as he brought himself back into the attack to break the 122-run partnership between Vince and Billings that had momentarily put England in the box seat. 

With the tourists needing a further 126 runs (at just under five-and-a-half runs an over), the 'Bendemeer Bullet' trapped Vince lbw for 60 only five balls after bringing himself back on to bowl.

Image Id: 1920AC59404D440C8A23884C48CFF03D Image Caption: Hazlewood’s dismissal of James Vince proved match-turning // Getty

He finished with 2-33 from seven overs despite conceding 0-21 from his first two overs, which he put down to an overwhelmed mind in the opening overs. 

"I was thinking about everyone else's bowling rather than my own at the start," Hazlewood said.

"But (eventually) got into a groove there. And then everything seemed to flow pretty well. 

"Obviously we've got Kez (Alex Carey) there, quite an experienced keeper to do all the angles with the field and different things. 

"And the two spinners (Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa) have played a lot of cricket. They know their fields so I stayed out of their way as best I could.

"There weren't any times I had to step in at all or argue, so it was smooth sailing."

Hazlewood is hopeful his captaincy career won't end here, and feels he would be the one to step up if Cummins were to miss another ODI moving forward.

With a packed scheduled that includes 14 Test matches and over a dozen one-dayers before the ODI World Cup next year, the chances of Cummins playing every match is unrealistic, leading Hazlewood to believe he could get more chances to lead the side.

"At this stage, probably yes," Hazlewood said.

"It's hard to say, I'm a fast bowler as well and I'll probably be missing games here and there as well.

"We've obviously got Smith, who was vice-captain tonight, and down the chain there's another couple in the leadership group. 

"There's plenty of options there and I felt even out in the middle there were a number of senior players I could talk to and get their opinions."

Men's Dettol ODI Series v England

1st ODI: Australia won by six wickets

2nd ODI: Australia won by 72 runs

Tuesday Nov 22: MCG, 2:20pm

Australia ODI squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa

England ODI squad: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Olly Stone, James Vince, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Luke Wood

Buy #AUSvENG ODI tickets here