Cricket News

‘I was thinking about everyone else’- Josh Hazelwood opens up about captaincy debut against England

Australia won the match by 72 runs under Josh Hazlewood.

Nov 20, 2022 12:39 pm

Arguably the greatest cricketing nation in the world, Australia’s captaincy comes with a huge responsibility. Currently, the leadership role is going through a change of hands after Aaron Finch’s retirement from ODIs.

As a domino effect of Finch’s retirement, and Pat Cummins’s exclusion, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has been given the task to lead Australia in the 50-over format. The 31-year-old led Australia to a victory in the second ODI against England.

After the match, the fast bowler spoke his mind about the new role and seems to have enjoyed it. “I certainly enjoyed it and it was a bit of a challenge there while that (James Vince and Sam Billings) partnership was going. And then we got a couple of wickets and that set the game up,” said a relieved Josh Hazlewood.

“I was thinking about everyone else’s bowling rather than my own at the start,” Hazlewood added. “But (I eventually) got into a groove there. And then everything seemed to flow pretty well. Obviously, we’ve got Kez (Alex Carey) there, quite an experienced keeper to do all the angles with the field and different things,” explained the right-arm bowler.

“And the two spinners (Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa) have played a lot of cricket. They know their fields so I stayed out of their way as best I could. There weren’t any times I had to step in at all or argue, so it was smooth sailing,” iterated Hazle wood after the match.

“It’s hard to say, I’m a fast bowler as well and I’ll probably be missing games here and there as well,” he admitted. “We’ve obviously got Smith, who was vice-captain tonight, and down the chain, there’s another couple in the leadership group. “There’s plenty of options there and I felt even out in the middle there were a number of senior players I could talk to and get their opinions.”

Australia have won the three-match ODI series against England after winning the first two matches. The third match is scheduled for November 22nd.