Josh Hazlewood, the Australian speedster who missed the entire Ashes tour due to an injury, has claimed that his recovery is on track and he is trying out different training methods to gain match fitness.
Australia have been struggling with several injury blows in every format of the game. Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, two of their frontline pacers, have been injured ahead of the marquee tournament in India and Sri Lanka.
While George Bailey had earlier informed Pat Cummins that he could be carried along for the second half of the tournament, Australia could manage that with just one player, and hence, Josh Hazlewood’s recovery needs to be hurried on.
Josh Hazlewood drops fitness update for ICC T20 World Cup 2026
Australian speedster Josh Hazlewood is on track for his recovery, and the paceman is confident to start Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign in Sri Lanka. Hazlewood was ruled out of the start of the Ashes series against England with a hamstring injury, but his return was then delayed by an Achilles problem.
However, now on the verge of recovery, Hazlewood would not be featuring in the Big Bash League, where he is on the supplementary list for the Sydney Sixers. He will also not be part of the T20I series against Pakistan but would be eyeing a return with one of the warm-up matches in the World Cup.
“Everything’s going to plan,” Hazlewood told ESPNcricinfo. “We took a few extra weeks once we couldn’t make the Test matches. I had a couple of bowls off the half-run last week. Running’s going well, all the strength stuff’s going well so, yeah, on track.”
The tournament schedule would give Hazlewood some more time to recover, since the Aussies have their first match against Ireland not before the 11th of February.
“But we’re still working on implementing training a different way, a little bit.” – Josh Hazlewood
Hazlewood’s injuries have been too frequent in the recent decade. He has not played a single stretch of series without getting injured; his last big stretch for the Aussies without an injury was between the middle of 2023 and the 2024-25 India Test series.
He had also claimed that he, alongside the medical team, is looking for any irregularities, wrong practices, or common factors in the problem, but he ruled out the hamstring injury as minor bad luck.
“I guess when you start back up, sometimes your body doesn’t like that stopping and getting it going [again]. So probably not as much of a dive into these two little niggles,” said Josh Hazlewood.
“But we’re still working on implementing training a different way a little bit. My gym and everything is still mostly the same, but I think purely from a bowling workload, leading into the next red-ball game, do as much as we can in terms of just dicing it up a little bit differently,” he revealed.
Josh Hazlewood would be key to Australia’s packed away Test schedule in 2026-27
While Hazlewood’s focus clearly lies in the upcoming T20 World Cup and the IPL that follows the ICC tournament, he would also be key to Australia’s packed Test schedule of 21 matches in the next 11 months, which includes crucial series against India and England.
The England series would be much more crucial for Josh Hazelwood and Australia, citing the help for seamers; however, the India series in January would provide them with opportunities to rest and rotate pacers. Pacers of Hazlewood’s calibre should sit out for a handful of games rather than be ruled out completely due to their uncertainty over workloads.
“[With] white ball, you can really sit down and nut it out because you know you’re involved for four or ten overs pretty much,” he said. “With the red ball, it is a bit more on the run. You can map out the way you want to train to get ready for that first one, but I think once the Tests start, then it’s sort of play it by ear and have those conversations on the go.”
The big Australian continued, “…you play too many in a row, obviously, weakness starts to creep in. So if you sort of sense that coming, yes, you might have to sit one out.”
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