Josh Hazlewood will play a Test match after 13 months when Australia takes on Bangladesh in Darwin.
Josh Hazlewood is just five wickets away from reaching the 300-wicket milestone in Test cricket, and he’ll be eyeing the record when Australia faces Bangladesh in the first Test in Darwin from August 13 onwards. The second and final Test of the series will be played from August 22 in Mackay.
Ahead of the important encounter, Hazlewood said his primary focus remains on team success rather than personal glory as the side prepares for a bumper schedule of 21 Test matches over the next 12 months.
The upcoming Bangladesh Tests will be Hazlewood’s first match in the format after a 13-month absence as he suffered a hamstring injury and subsequent calf issue.
If he completes the 300 Test wickets in the series against Bangladesh, Hazlewood would join an elite club of Australian pace bowlers with 300-plus wickets in the format that includes the likes of Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, and Pat Cummins.
However, Hazlewood made the decision to shed attention on how Australia's core bowling attack is still primarily focused on tours to South Africa, India, and England.
"I think every time you look ahead in sport it can bite you pretty quickly. I've always done that. I've looked at it like that literally day in, day out for the last few weeks here, ticking boxes, getting workloads in. Next week's another tick, and then I guess once you get through all that, then you look at Darwin. So everything else is a long way away. Just take it as it comes.
This group's been together for quite a long time now – the majority of it, anyway – and the big series are obviously England and India. I haven't won in South Africa either, so there are three that are coming up … a few boxes to tick off there (for) not just me, (but) this whole playing group,” Hazlewood said during a training camp in Brisbane on Thursday.
"That's been a driving factor during this prep, in the back of your head, and even (in) the months leading into it. (They're) some real big Test series, and they're all away, so (it's) tough competition and hopefully we get the job done,” he added.
Hazlewood expressed confidence in his meticulous red-ball preparation after spending the last few weeks preparing at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane to mimic Test match workloads.
"I think this is probably the first time we've actually had a lead-in to a Test without any cricket in terms of games. It's been big days, Tuesdays, Thursdays mostly, with some other stuff filtered in around that, and then last week we had a few back-to-back days, Tuesday, Wednesday, and again next week I think back-to-back.
Leading into other Test series and Test matches, you're playing T20, you're playing one-dayers, you're travelling, so it's tough to fit those bowling sessions in. This has been sort of tailor-made for a Test match, which I think should work out well. It's just trying to replicate a day in the field of Test cricket. Really, it's bowling multiple spells in a day. It's bowling back-to-back days," he concluded.
(IANS inputs)