WTC Final | ‘My numbers over the last two years have been pretty good’ - Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood confident ahead of marquee clash

‌After missing the World Test Championship final against India at the Oval in 2023 with an injury, Josh Hazlewood has another shot to become a WTC title winner. With Australia facing South Africa in the WTC 2023-25 final at Lord’s on June 11, Hazlewood feels he is currently bowling at his best over his storied career. With nine wins in nine finals of various competitions, including the IPL 2025 title with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Hazlewood is yet to lose a summit clash in his career as he gears up to maintain the perfect record.

However, the pacer, who missed the last two Test matches in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against India along with the Sri Lanka series earlier this year, is in direct competition with Scott Boland for the third seamer’s role in the marquee contest starting next week. Boland has been impressive whenever he has come into the side as an injury replacement making the job difficult for the selectors but Hazlewood sounded confident.

"I was obviously quite close last time [in 2023]," Hazlewood said. "I just had more of an interrupted IPL leading into that, and then had a few little issues going on, so wasn't quite up to scratch, but I feel in a much better place this time around.

"And I think in any format, my numbers over the last two years have been pretty good, so I have got a lot to fall back on in terms of skill wise. I still feel like I'm bowling probably the best over my career and it's just a matter of the body holding up, which it has been in the last few months."

After finishing as RCB’s highest wicket-taker, and third overall, in their winning campaign in the recently concluded IPL with 22 wickets from 12 matches, the pacer is busy transitioning for the grind of the five-day format. He acknowledged that it will be a different ball game altogether with the fast bowlers required to put in long spells over multiple days in the WTC final.

"I think the intensity is probably a big one for me to tick that box," he acknowledged. "We're definitely adapting training to sort of get those back-to-back days in, get a big day, followed by another bowling session the day after and things like that, just to try and try and get our head around it and put ourselves in the best possible position we can be."

"I ticked over some good overs just before the final in Ahmedabad, in different weather than this," he pointed out. "It was quite a tough session. And then every time you play a game in the IPL, you're probably going to get almost seven or eight overs if you really want to, in and around with warm-ups. I had a number of times where I bowled back-to-back days, again at high intensity, with the game being one of those."

The workload aside, Hazlewood will have to quickly adapt to the Duke balls and make a mental switch with respect to the lines and lengths that will give him and his side success over the next week. With the focus being on the hard areas on the back of a good length to deny batters getting under the ball for boundaries in the IPL, he now has to take it fuller to bring in the batters’ edge and the stumps in play.

"In the IPL games, I was probably hitting around that seven-to nine-meters in the powerplay, and not really threatening the stumps as much as you want to in Test cricket, in particular here in England," he explained. "So, it'll just be about pushing that length and touch fuller and still getting that zip through the keeper."

With Australia still uncertain whether they will play an all-rounder or go with an extra batter in Cameron Green, Hazlewood underlined the importance of an all-rounder in easing up the workload of the specialist bowlers in Tests. Earlier, the Australian head coach Andrew McDonald had commented that the Aussies could still do without an all-rounder in the one-off WTC final match against England but the pacer chose to differ with his coach.

"I think it's huge," he said. "I remember back to when we didn't have one…and it was brutal. It was tough work. I feel like you're just continually bowling, like you're almost following the next guy at the other end and then you're switching ends and then Gazza [Nathan Lyon] is from one end and we all rotate.

"So to have that bowler, even to be honest, Travis and Marnus , it only has to be a couple overs here and there just to give you that extra break to then be fresher, whether it be the second new ball or the next day or later on in the series. It just sort of snowballs if you don't have that allrounder and you're just continually bowling,” he signed off.