Josh Hazlewood dilemma shows Australia’s embarrassment of riches

J osh Hazlewood missed the first Test of the 2019 Ashes in Birmingham off the back of an injury layoff. Due to caution about his buildup, he was held back in favour of a bowler who was a bit slower, a bit less glamorous, but would hit the seam all day with nagging accuracy.

In 2023 it might be the same story. Swap Peter Siddle for Scott Boland this time around, and Hazlewood is again wondering whether he can make his way into the team, this time after conservative treatment of some soreness in his side ruled him out of the World Test Championship final.

“I think if it was a one-off I probably could have played that game,” he says of the showpiece clash with India at the Oval last week. “With what’s coming up now, it just would have been too big of a risk.”

It is worth remembering that peak Hazlewood is a fast-bowling beast. With an arm position upright as a mainmast he hits the pitch from a great height, but still produces subtlety in seam or swing. Remember the brief shiver of movement that he employed to start the fifth day at Adelaide in 2017. England resumed on that morning with Joe Root and Chris Woakes together and hopes of chasing a target. Minutes later both had feathered catches behind.

But a frustrating run with injury, including multiple recurrences of a side strain, has kept Hazlewood to four Tests in the past two and a half years, meaning that with Edgbaston looming he is again not the automatic pick that he has been at other times in his career. His 222 wickets from 59 Tests look like an automatic statistical pick over Boland’s 33 from eight, but Boland’s career bloom and his decisive work in the WTC final don’t make it that simple.

“I think Scotty’s everyone’s favourite at the moment,” Hazlewood, 32,