Australia pace bowler Josh Hazlewood said playing in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) was the perfect preparation for him going into the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 ahead of his team’s tournament opener against South Africa on October 23.
Hazlewood was part of Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) triumphant campaign in the IPL 2021. The 30-year-old returned for the second leg of IPL 14 in the UAE despite many of his Australian colleagues like Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Kane Richardson opted out of the lucrative T20 league.
The pacer scalped 11 wickets in 9 games in the UAE, including the figures of 4-0-29-2 in the IPL 2021 final against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to help CSK clinch their fourth IPL title and the Aussie said winning the trophy was an “exciting” moment for him.
As reported by Perth Now, Hazlewood said: “It’s been perfect preparation. It’s perfect getting a run of games of T20 cricket leading into the T20 World Cup. The conditions, the elements here – it's quite hot. It was a very experienced team and great to be around in T20, which I haven’t played a lot of. To learn a lot on the run (was good), it was pretty exciting the other night to win the final.”
The ace pacer also said is confident in his role as a bowler in the T20 format of the game while reckoning every match in the shorter format of the game is different and players can learn a lot of new things.
He further explained, “I feel pretty confident in my role now. It's a pretty similar role whether it's for Chennai or Australia, a couple of overs up front and then a couple at the end. So (I'm) feeling more confident with every situation I'm in.”
Hazlewood signed off by saying, “Every game is different in the T20 format and you learn a lot from each game. You can never dominate T20 cricket as a bowler, I don't think. There are just so many different elements. But I'm feeling good about my game.”
(With PTI Inputs)
