Josh Hazlewood’s summer looks even sweeter when you wind back the clock to moments in his career where it was “hard to get going” due to injuries
Hazlewood back to lethal best after wretched run with injuries
It's difficult to reconcile given his exploits of recent weeks, but barely a year ago Josh Hazlewood's future as a Test bowler was being questioned because of a frustrating inability to stay injury-free and on the park.
Hazlewood might have been the last of the current Australia Test attack to claim 250 Test wickets when he scattered West Indian Alick Athanaze's stumps on Wednesday morning, but his worth has been underscored by his return of the past three innings.
The 33-year-old's 4-16 that sent Pakistan hurtling to defeat at the SCG in the New Year's Test was followed by career-best match figures of 9-79 against West Indies at Adelaide Oval over the past three days, a venue he rates as one of his favourites in world cricket.
He now boasts 41 wickets at 16.83 at the historic venue where the prefabricated pitches dropped-in over the past 12 years suit his style of suffocating seam bowling, giving him the lowest average of any bowler to have taken 10 or more wickets there.
That record might be even more remarkable had he played in last summer's Test against the battling West Indies, but he was absent as he struggled to overcome a string of injuries that led to the speculation about his longevity in the longest format.
Hazlewood sustained a side strain in the opening Test of 2022-23 in Perth and missed the first two games of the subsequent series against South Africa, then aggravated an achilles problem on his return that sidelined him from Australia's four-Test tour to India at the start of last year.
He was ruled out of Australia's squad for the World Test Championship final against India at The Oval last June after a recurrence of the side injury, but played four of the five in the Ashes campaign that followed.
"Getting up to Test level in terms of getting your body ready for Test cricket, once you're up there you're okay but once you have an injury or a setback it's sometimes hard to get going," Australia skipper Pat Cummins said of Hazlewood's recent setbacks.
"He just had some injuries at the wrong times over the last couple of years and missed a couple of key series but he's back to the Joshy we all remember and know, and it just shows his worth to the team.
"With the new ball he can strike early and have them two or three down early before you know it.
"Right-handers, left-handers, basically all conditions he finds a way and as a captain it's pretty easy to give him the ball and know he's going to go to work.
'He's showed his class on two very different wickets (Sydney and Adelaide) that he'll find a way to take command of the game."
Across 38 overs in his past three Test bowling innings, Hazlewood has claimed 13 scalps at the under-12s-type average of 7.3 runs apiece while conceding just 2.5 runs an over and making a breakthrough every 17.5 deliveries.
After his memorable three wickets in a single over to end day three at the SCG, and with it any hope Pakistan held of earning a consolation victory, Hazlewood scythed through the West Indies' fragile middle-order on day one at Adelaide where he picked up 3-35 during the afternoon session.
That was just a warm-up for his exploits late on day two when he knocked over the first four West Indies batters at a cost of just two runs in a devastating spell that set Australia on track for their fourth consecutive Test win of the current summer, all of which have been achieved inside four days.
"Obviously very consistent, hitting one spot and a spot that's not the easiest to score off at times," West Indies captain and opener Kraigg Brathwaite said of Hazlewood who snared his wicket during Thursday evening's decisive spell.
"As the ball gets older, it maybe a little easier but initially you really need a solid defence.
"Everyone obviously will bowl a bad ball, but I think his relentlessness is his strength and you have to have a solid defence especially when that ball is hard."
As the last member of the vaunted Australia current Test attack to join the 250-wickets club, behind Nathan Lyon (512), Mitchell Starc (348) and Cummins (262), Hazlewood laughingly suggested "someone's got to bring up the rear I guess" when asked how it felt to join that group.
But he added his body was now in good shape despite playing every Test to date of the Australia summer for the first time since the series loss to India in 2020-21, raising prospects the 'big four' might push through all five Tests here this season as well as the two to follow in New Zealand next month.
Hazlewood observes his cause has been helped by the ruthless effectiveness of a bowling outfit that now also includes all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green, which has collectively been required to send down 100 over in an innings just once – 101.5 overs for Pakistan's first innings in Perth.
"Luckily we haven't bowled too many back-to-back days or long days in the dirt, we've broken it up as best we possibly could," Hazlewood said of the reduced bowling loads this summer.
"It feels like the perfect amount to have some really nice rhythm without cooking yourself.
"You don't always have that choice in Test cricket but it's nice when it works out.
"I love playing here, pink or red ball, there's still enough if you hang around that off-stump five or six metres (from the batter).
"It's like a nice thatch grass that a lot of the wobble seams grip, and there's just enough there all day."
As for the 250-wicket achievement, which only 10 other Australia men's bowlers have reached over almost 150 years of Test cricket, the unobtrusive right-armer characteristically has taken it in his loping stride.
"I never really look at milestones that often, it's just about doing my role for the team each time I go and play," he said upon reaching the mark at a lower average than other members of that exclusive Australian club bar Cummins, Dennis Lillee and Glenn McGrath.
"Try and keep my best and worst spell really close together which I hope I can do for the rest of my career, as I've hopefully done for the start.
"It's just putting that ball in the right area, I know it sounds cliched but that's my role for the team – keep it dry, pick up the odd wicket, let the other boys attack.
"It's good to get part of the group though."
NRMA Insurance Test series v West Indies
First Test: January 17-21, Adelaide Oval (10.30am AEDT)
Second Test: January 25-29, Gabba (3pm AEDT)
Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc
West Indies Test squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Alzarri Joseph (vc), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Kirk McKenzie, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Justin Greaves, Joshua Da Silva, Akeem Jordan, Gudakesh Motie, Kemar Roach, Kevin Sinclair, Tevin Imlach, Shamar Joseph, Zachary McCaskie
Men's Dettol ODI Series v West Indies
February 2: MCG, 2.30pm AEDT
February 4: SCG, 2.30pm AEDT
February 6: Manuka Oval, Canberra 2.30pm AEDT
Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), Travis Head (vc), Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Matt Short, Adam Zampa
West Indies ODI squad: Shai Hope (c), Alzarri Joseph, Alick Athanaze, Teddy Bishop, Keacy Carty, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde, Justin Greaves, Kavem Hodge, Tevin Imlach, Gudakesh Motie, Kjorn Ottley, Romario Shepherd, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr.
Men's Dettol T20I Series v West Indies
February 9: Blundstone Arena, Hobart 7.00pm AEDT
February 11: Adelaide Oval, 7pm AEDT
February 13: Perth Stadium, 7pm AEDT
West Indies T20I squad: Rovman Powell (c), Shai Hope, Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Oshane Thomas