The last six months have been quite frustrating for Josh Hazlewood. A hamstring injury he picked during a Sheffield Shield game for New South Wales in November 2025 had forced him to spend quite a lot of time on the sidelines.
At a time when he is arguably at his peak as an all-format bowler, Hazlewood had to give the Ashes Down Under and the following T20 World Cup a skip to try and regain full fitness. Now, as he looks to help his franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru retain the Indian Premier League title, he is slowly getting up to full steam.
“It was a tough few months during the summer. I missed some big cricket. But, when you’re fit there is always some cricket to be played,” Hazlewood said. “I feel like I’m getting close. There’s always something niggling away. The confidence in the body is good.”
The 35-year-old says he was disappointed in not being able to contribute to his national side during through an important phase, but adds that at this stage in his career, he has accepted that he will not be able to play every game.
“I probably played my first 50 or 60 Tests almost in a row. And then it’s taken me a little bit to play the next 15 or 20. It’s a bad thing but I feel like I’m getting used to it a little bit, watching on from the side. From age 24 to 30 you almost feel like you’re invincible but as the years go on you have to be rested or miss the odd game here or there,” the Australian said.
As T20 cricket undergoes a seismic shift which has influenced the growth of shorter-format specialists, Hazlewood is one of the very few remaining old-timers that have kept faith in their traditional bowling methodology. The hard lengths, his strength across formats, have often proved to be the most difficult ball to get away for batters.
“Jumping between formats is the best challenge in cricket. In terms of skill, T20 cricket involves adapting to the conditions and the opposition a bit more. Test cricket is more of a general approach, finding the good line and length. Sometimes bowling in Test cricket is the best way to bowl in T20s across different wickets. The basics get the job done more often than not,” the Aussie quick-bowler said.
The right-arm pacer has been a constant feature in the IPL since the turn of the decade. He was part of the IPL-winning Chennai Super Kings team in 2021 before making the short trip west to Bengaluru. He contributed 22 wickets in IPL 2025 to lead RCB to its first-ever title.
“[Winning the trophy with RCB] was special, in particular, to do it for those guys that had been here for 18 years. It was a little bit different in Chennai. It almost felt like a normality. Here, we had to really earn that first one,” he said. “This year we’ve played decent cricket in patches, and somehow we are top of the table. We haven’t really played our best cricket.”
One of the major reasons for the on-field success of the franchise has been the versatility of its two leading pacers, Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The two old warhorses possess the innate ability to give the side early breakthroughs while also keeping things tight with relentless accuracy when needed. The Australian pacer said that the complementary nature of the duo’s bowling has given the team some much-needed balance with the ball.
“[Bowling with Bhuvneshwar] is a little bit like bowling with Patty [Pat Cummins] and Starcy [Mitchell Starc] for Australia. We are a little different. He’s probably going to pitch it up a little bit, swing the ball around. I’ll probably hit the wicket and get a bit of seam,” Hazlewood said.
“We’ve sort of got every base covered. If you’ve got three of the same [type of] bowler, I think the batter can get a pretty good read on what’s happening. So, it’s nice to have balance in your attack,” he added.
Hazlewood points out that there is a lot more calmness around the RCB franchise compared to when he first joined in 2022. There is more experience among players and the coaching staff, led by Andy Flower, are a lot more focussed on the process rather than the results. That he says will hold the team in pretty good stead going into the business end of the tournament this year.
Published on May 20, 2026