<p>Bengaluru: At the start of the season, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru were fretting over the fitness of their lead pacer, Josh Hazlewood. Although it was offset with New Zealander Jacob Duffy stepping up beautifully with six wickets in the opening three games, including a Player of the Match performance (3/22) in the season opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Challengers’ management would have been praying silently for Hazlewood’s full recovery from his Achilles tendon problem. And with reason too.</p>.<p>After rejoining the franchise for a second time during the November 2024 auction, where the club paid Rs 12.50 crore, Hazlewood has become an integral member of the side. Despite being perceived to be a Test-match bowler who relies largely on hitting the hard-length area, Hazlewood has achieved considerable success in cricket’s most unforgiving format for bowlers. </p>.<p>Last season, Hazlewood was RCB’s premier wicket-taker with 22 scalps in 12 games — the franchise feeling his absence dearly in the games that he missed in the middle of the season due to niggles. But when the 35-year-old returned just when RCB were in a rough patch, the fortunes of the side resurrected remarkably, which culminated in them winning the title for the first time.</p>.Chinnaswamy stadium could be the tonic that LSG need: Tom Moody.<p>After warming the benches for the opening three games this season, Hazlewood finally made his return against Rajasthan Royals, but it didn’t go as per plans as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal took him and the rest of the RCB bowling attack to the cleaners. Great players always hit back following a failure, and Hazlewood showed what a priceless asset he is to RCB, producing a Player of the Match performance (1/20) in the last match against Lucknow Super Giants.</p>.<p>Looking fresh as a daisy at the pre-match press conference here on Friday ahead of the Delhi Capitals’ battle, Hazlewood said he’s raring to have a go. “It’s always tough being at home doing rehab while cricket is going on, in particular an Ashes and a World Cup. So I was always keen to get back as soon as I could for IPL, but not at the same time rush it,” said Hazlewood.</p>.<p>“So that’s sort of how we’ve planned. Everything’s gone to plan accordingly so far. The plan was to miss the first two and then play a game, and then obviously game four was so quickly back up to miss that and then play again the other night. So fingers crossed, our schedule’s pretty good now.”</p>.<p>When asked how he’s so successful despite keeping things simple, Hazlewood said he just relies on his strengths. “I think leading into this tournament and then training, when we get the opportunity to train throughout the tournament, you’re always working on different things, trying different things. We see different bowlers in our group have different styles of bowls, so I was just watching that, trying to copy that maybe or trying a different ball here and there.</p>.<p>“But I think at the same time you rely on your strengths, first and foremost. So obviously my strength is hitting the length, hitting it hard, it’s not floating the ball up, it’s not digging it in so it’s making it hard for the batter to hit me off that length. That’s obviously my strength, the batters know that. It’s just about executing that first and foremost as best I can.”</p>
<p>Bengaluru: At the start of the season, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru were fretting over the fitness of their lead pacer, Josh Hazlewood. Although it was offset with New Zealander Jacob Duffy stepping up beautifully with six wickets in the opening three games, including a Player of the Match performance (3/22) in the season opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Challengers’ management would have been praying silently for Hazlewood’s full recovery from his Achilles tendon problem. And with reason too.</p>.<p>After rejoining the franchise for a second time during the November 2024 auction, where the club paid Rs 12.50 crore, Hazlewood has become an integral member of the side. Despite being perceived to be a Test-match bowler who relies largely on hitting the hard-length area, Hazlewood has achieved considerable success in cricket’s most unforgiving format for bowlers. </p>.<p>Last season, Hazlewood was RCB’s premier wicket-taker with 22 scalps in 12 games — the franchise feeling his absence dearly in the games that he missed in the middle of the season due to niggles. But when the 35-year-old returned just when RCB were in a rough patch, the fortunes of the side resurrected remarkably, which culminated in them winning the title for the first time.</p>.Chinnaswamy stadium could be the tonic that LSG need: Tom Moody.<p>After warming the benches for the opening three games this season, Hazlewood finally made his return against Rajasthan Royals, but it didn’t go as per plans as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal took him and the rest of the RCB bowling attack to the cleaners. Great players always hit back following a failure, and Hazlewood showed what a priceless asset he is to RCB, producing a Player of the Match performance (1/20) in the last match against Lucknow Super Giants.</p>.<p>Looking fresh as a daisy at the pre-match press conference here on Friday ahead of the Delhi Capitals’ battle, Hazlewood said he’s raring to have a go. “It’s always tough being at home doing rehab while cricket is going on, in particular an Ashes and a World Cup. So I was always keen to get back as soon as I could for IPL, but not at the same time rush it,” said Hazlewood.</p>.<p>“So that’s sort of how we’ve planned. Everything’s gone to plan accordingly so far. The plan was to miss the first two and then play a game, and then obviously game four was so quickly back up to miss that and then play again the other night. So fingers crossed, our schedule’s pretty good now.”</p>.<p>When asked how he’s so successful despite keeping things simple, Hazlewood said he just relies on his strengths. “I think leading into this tournament and then training, when we get the opportunity to train throughout the tournament, you’re always working on different things, trying different things. We see different bowlers in our group have different styles of bowls, so I was just watching that, trying to copy that maybe or trying a different ball here and there.</p>.<p>“But I think at the same time you rely on your strengths, first and foremost. So obviously my strength is hitting the length, hitting it hard, it’s not floating the ball up, it’s not digging it in so it’s making it hard for the batter to hit me off that length. That’s obviously my strength, the batters know that. It’s just about executing that first and foremost as best I can.”</p>