Perfect line and length are the skills associated with Josh Hazlewood. The Australian bowler picking up wickets with his accurate bowling has been a common sight in test cricket. But in 2021, we have surely seen something new, something different, from this textbook Test bowler. Hazlewood has been a crucial part of two T-20 championship-winning teams in less than 30 days. In this piece, we look at the bowler’s performance in the ICC Men’s T2O WC 2021 and how the IPL experience with Chennai Super Kings in the same conditions helped him through it.
Powerplay Magic
Surely, Australia was lucky with the toss and bowled first in six of their seven games. This gave Hazlewood the perfect opportunity to hit the right line and length and be economical through the powerplay in the first innings. 62.5% of his overs were in this phase, and the bowler conceded runs at less than run-a-ball. Compare that stat to his performance in the IPL this season, it seemed like Hazlewood learned from his mistakes and used his experience in the best possible manner for his country. In IPL 2021, his dot ball % was 46.8 in the powerplay. Seven of his 11 wickets in the tournament were in the powerplay overs, a stat that signifies that the bowler is picking up crucial wickets of the top-order batters.
Against the Best
A player’s performance against the best opposition player tells a lot about their temperament and the impact they can have on a match. Against seven different teams, Hazlewood picked up the best batters of that particular team four times. Out of the remaining three times, only Jos Buttler managed to score against him at a very high strike rate of 200.
Such a stat does have a crucial impact on the game, the bowler is either picking up the best batter at the start of the innings or getting him out when he has settled in and eyeing a big score. For example, against New Zealand in the Final, Hazlewood bowled six dot balls to Kane Williamson in the Powerplay, but more importantly, got his wicket in the 18th over when he was scoring boundaries for fun against the other bowlers.
IPL Experience
Hazlewood started his wicket tally in the IPL 2021 season by picking up Kieron Pollard in the first match after the restart. It was an all-important wicket for CSK, given Pollard’s record against them. Learning from your failures is one of the most important skills for a player, and Hazlewood did so after going for 54 runs in 4 overs against Rajasthan Royals. In the following four matches, he did not concede more than 30 runs even once and picked up wickets of crucial top-order batters. He had identical figures of 2-29 in the Qualifier and the Final. The next most expensive figure by the bowler came against West Indies, when he gave away 39 runs in five overs, but also picked up four wickets in the process. Hazlewood surely grew as a T20 bowler in a short span of time.
Conclusion
Hazlewood was Australia’s best pace bowler in terms of wickets, economy rate, and strike rate. He picked up a total of 11 wickets at an economy of 7.29. In a team where you have Mitchell Starc, who has been an established white-ball bowler, for Hazlewood to end the tournament with such stats, is incredible!
Be it the conditions or the luck which favored the team, Hazlewood’s performance in the tournament will set the right example moving forward in this format. There are opportunities for your line and length bowler, depending on your team dynamics and the playing conditions.
The next edition of the T20 World Cup is in Australia, and the bowler’s stats in T20I’s in Australia are not promising. An economy of 9.44 in Australia and 12.5 in South Africa (similar conditions), can be a slight worrying point for the team management, given the role he plays in the team. Australia do play around 10-13 T20Is at home before the next edition, and it will be the perfect opportunity for Hazlewood to show his skills and temperament in those conditions.