Indian Premier League (IPL) is the flagship T20 domestic cricket competition in the world in which almost every top player wants to feature since all eyes are on the players performing in the lucrative tournament and Australian speedster Josh Hazlewood is no different.
He is one of the Australian players who are part of the enlarged 26-man training squad and due to play in the currently postponed India’s cash-rich T20 league.
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Hazlewood, who has been compared to former Australian pace great Glenn McGrath for his accuracy, is scheduled to play for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2020 which is likely to be held later this year after ICC T20 World Cup 2020 canceled this due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the cricket calendar, the pacer admitted that if IPL 13 takes place later this year it will create some "tough" decisions for those with contracts in the cash-rich league while terming the IPL as the strongest T20 competition in the world.
However, the pacer has hinted that Australians might decide to play in the IPL 2020 even if it requires them to miss some part of their domestic season, considering the league's success in molding decent cricketers into "much better players" as compared to other tournaments.
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Hazlewood was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo: “There are a few things to fall into place yet but the IPL is such a huge part of the year for a lot of players and probably the strongest T20 competition in the world, up there with the Big Bash, and you learn a lot about how to play your T20 cricket and how to play in those conditions.”
He further added, “You’ve seen guys come out of it much better players so there’s a lot of positives to it, so if that takes a few games off us playing for New South Wales in the build-up to the international summer that’s a tough call, (and) probably comes back to the individual.”
The pacer also feels it is very important that players, especially fast bowlers, will train while undergoing quarantine following a 4-month COVID-19 lockdown.
He further explained, “As long as we can train during that period it will be okay, it's if we come back and we can't train during that two-week period. We've built these loads up as fast bowlers then two weeks really hurt us coming into a summer of Test cricket. As far as red-ball ball cricket goes I feel I only need one, maximum two games, to get ready for a Test. There have been summers where we've come from a white-ball tour and only played one (red-ball game) and it's been fine.”
Reacting to England’s Jofra Archer strict bio-security protocol breach, Hazlewood said: “Absolutely. I think Jofra is one example and there have been examples in the NRL and AFL as well. Just by hugging a mate in the crowd, you miss a week. So we've got to keep those strict guidelines in place to get the sport to go ahead. So we'll obviously learn from that mistake.”
On Dom Sibley who unintentionally used saliva on the ball during the second Test against West Indies at Manchester, the Aussie said, “It's a pretty natural habit... it's just such a reaction to seeing a spot on the ball that needs fixing and you go and put some saliva on.”
Hazlewood signed off by saying, “You've been doing it since five years old so it will take a while to break the habit but obviously conscious of it on the field.”
(With PTI Inputs)
