Hazlewood’s return to Royal Challengers Bangalore post-injury has given a great fillip to the team. He feels that the intensity of the IPL will prepare him well for the Test Final against South Africa next month. After a month-long break with a shoulder injury, Hazlewood returned to the IPL and showcased his brilliance to make sure that RCB got to their first playoffs since 2016 with a convincing win against Punjab Kings.
“I’ll have to bowl wherever I am to be prepared for that game. There’s no better place than the middle of the park for it. You need hours and hours of training for a Test, but in terms of intensity, the IPL is up there,” he said. Hazlewood went with his skills straight away in his first game after comeback, bagging 2 for 16 runs in just a little more than three overs.
Hazlewood has always been known more as a Test bowler, but he says he’s gotten better in T20s now, too, bowling really good lengths and yorkers. He took some crucial wickets yesterday and insisted that Test bowling and his T20 bowling are very similar. He already leads RCB in wickets with just 11 matches under his belt this season.
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He spoke of his recovery, saying, “I put a lot of work into the shoulder and got some good overs behind me in the last 10 days. It’s great to be back.” His team fare better too, with the likes of Suyash Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar contributing with the ball as RCB bowled out Punjab Kings for 101 and chased down the target with ease. Hazlewood also said that the conditions helped bowlers with the Suyash excelling all through the tournament.
