Josh Hazlewood hopes to rattle India's batting line-up with Mitchell Starc in Ahmedabad.
Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood said that Team India does not have “any real weaknesses”, but he saw a “few cracks” in their top-order, so it would be really fun to go after the hosts in the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in Ahmedabad on November 16.
Notably, the Indian cricket team bowled out Australia for 199 in their first game at the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 in Chennai and then went on to win the game by six wickets. Also, the Men in Blue had won the ODI series by a 2-1 margin in the lead-up to the ODI World Cup 2023.
Well, India is undefeated in the tournament, while the mighty Australians peaked at the right time, so it would be a fantastic final at Narendra Modi Stadium, and Hazlewood also expects so.
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Josh Hazlewood said: “We got one in the series, lost that 2-1, but no, we’ve played them a lot of times. We know them inside out, same with them. They’re a quality team, they’ve been on a march the whole tournament, no real weaknesses in their team.”
He added, “So, yeah, look forward to playing them on Sunday. I guess we saw a few cracks when we played them in Chennai chasing a small target, we were lucky enough to get a couple early.”
Meanwhile, the Australian pacer bowled really well with Mitchell Starc in the second semifinal against South Africa, as the duo combined to take five wickets to rattle their batting line at Eden Gardens.
After Australia’s 3-wicket win, he said the pitch was good for bowling in Kolkata.
Hazlewood said, “I think there was enough there on the wicket. It looked like every time they went to play a shot, we got a wicket. They sort of had to knuckle back down and try and see it out. Yeah, Starc and I have bowled together for a long time now, we know each other’s games, and we both play well on the same night, which is pleasing.
Hopefully, we can do that on Sunday as well, but… yeah, there’s a little bit in the wicket which we probably haven’t had, in the previous games, or in a couple here and there, but it was nice to get the ball on.”
Praising Starc, Hazlewood said: “You don’t try and chase it too much either. You know there’s enough there, you’ve just got to put the ball in the right area, but easier said than undone sometimes. Starc keeping it simple… don’t go over-attacking.”
He signed off by saying, “We know that they’ve sort of got six front-line batters, and Marco’s (Jansen) had a great, great tournament at seven, so if we can make early in-roads, we know they’re set up for the back-end as well. So early wickets just put them on the back foot, and we’re lucky enough to do that tonight.”
(With PTI Inputs)