Ashes 2019: Josh Hazlewood’s prolific return symbolises Australia’s triumph of planning as England toil

Dropped for the first Test, the fast-bowler produced arguably the best spell of his career

Josh Hazlewood doesn’t get left out. The very definition of a production-line fast bowler, he has always been wanted in any XI that he’s fit for. That was, until, last week – the first Test of this series, when he was deemed surplus to requirements. Granted, being overlooked in Birmingham didn’t mean he would not turn out at Lord’s – that much was made clear by Australia’s brains trust – but it still had to be a shock given that on the way to 164 scalps in 44 Tests he had earned the tag as the nation’s most dependable seamer.

That Hazlewood had acquired two stress fractures to his back in the last twelve months – an injury that crippled him as a teen tearaway – complicated matters earlier this year. It was on this basis that he was left out of the World Cup to be primed for a second crack at Ashes cricket in England. The last time around, in 2015, he arrived with six caps to his name. On paper, he went well – 16 scalps in four Tests at 26. But those numbers were misleading.

By the time of the final Test, he was injured. Or rested? We never really got to the bottom of it. The consensus was, in any case, that Peter Siddle was the right man to finish the series and Hazlewood needed a spell out. Upon returning home from that tour, he explained that he had got carried away bowling with the Dukes missile, looking for “that miracle ball all the time.” Data supported that: 43 per cent of his deliveries in the 2015 Ashes were full of a length, the highest of any series he has played.

At Lord’s in 2015 this suited him in by far his best performance of that campaign. Operating almost exclusively from the Nursery End, he collected five wickets with four either bowled or leg before wicket. As Justin Langer explained on the rained-out first day of 2019’s Test at the same ground, their aim in looking after Hazlewood’s body through the Australia ‘A’ tour games was to have him play here. “He hits a great length, he's usually miserly with his economy rate. That's what gave him the (selection) edge in this game.”​

It was no small deal letting Mitch Starc ride the pine for the second Test running, on a slope where he took two bags of five wickets last month in the World Cup, but Hazlewood’s performance is a validation of the calculated planning that has gone into this process. The last time England were in town the secret to Australia’s success was keeping the Big Three (and Nathan Lyon) on the park for five Tests running, which they nearly pulled off. Joe Root’s side never experienced respite. But 2019 is a corrective of 2015, not an extension of 2017.

Before that 2017 series, it was David Warner and Lyon who went out to take on the tourists – infamously, the latter saying that he wanted to end some careers. This time around, in the post-Sandpaper world, only Hazlewood had a pop. It was a gentle one, noting that Jason Roy hadn’t played Test cricket and wouldn’t find the red-ball caper as easy as boshing white-ball tons, but the point was made. It was now the new England opener he would be running in at from the Nursery End to start his series. Within three balls, he found his outside edge with the most superb little away-ducker. His demonstrative response to the strike said it all.

Better again was the delivery that did Root all ends up, trailing back up the slope with the first ball of his fifth immaculate over. England’s captain’s feet were both pointing at Hazlewood when the ball struck his pad, beaten on the inside edge as comprehensively as he had been on the outside of the bat in the over before. The movement was subtle but sufficient; there is no need for those miracle balls when landing so consistently in a shoebox.

Indeed, CricViz calculated that Hazlewood’s initial six-over burst was the most accurate of his career with 72 per cent of his offerings landing on both a good line and length. His next best by this measure was in the fourth innings at Adelaide in 2017, where he denied England on the final day with the best spell of his career. This might have just bettered it.

Josh Hazelwood celebrates taking the wicket of Joe Denly (Getty) (Getty Images)

The swing would come later. In each of Hazlewood’s four subsequent spells he moved the ball more and more, to the point where in his fifth it was moving through the air at roughly the level normally expected of Jimmy Anderson. This was the trick to removing Joe Denly, who looked more assured than any England player until the minutes before his downfall. Doing his best Jeff Thomson impersonation, Pat Cummins softened him up with a pair of ferocious short balls – one of which hit him in the head. In the next over, Hazlewood nicked him off with an old-fashioned tempter outside the off-stump. A triumph of planning.

And so it can be said of Australia’s overall fast bowler strategy so far on the basis of the three innings where they have gone through their paces. A continued criticism of Australian cricket on and off the field after the Newlands affairs was pigheadedness. In England this summer those running the team have been anything but. A bit of candour goes a long way, and it’s leaving England a long way behind in this series.