Star Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood, who plays for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), will miss the opening matches of the tournament, he revealed in an interview with the Australian media outlet The Age. The pacer revealed that he will return to India for IPL 2023 by April 14 but it will take him another week to get match-fit.
Hazlewood has been suffering from an Achilles injury which also kept him out of the India and Australia ODI and Test series, and his Australian teammate Glenn Maxwell is also doubtful for RCB's opening match against Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 2 in Bengaluru.
"Everything is ticking along according to plan, so I'll be heading over on the 14th (of April) depending on how the next two weeks go," Hazlewood was quoted as saying by The Age.
"I probably won't be quite ready to go right then, but (after) another week in India to touch things up skills wise I should be ready to go hopefully."
Hazlewood, who had to opt out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, is hoping to get ready for the Ashes via the IPL. "You don't need a lot of workload for T20. It's more just ticking off those boxes of getting up to speed and pushing back in the run-up. I'm probably only going to need to do one or two sessions at full pace and then I'm probably good to play.
"T20 is a lot different to Test and even one-day cricket. You only need 20 balls at full pace and that's pretty close to a game, which is a good thing," he said.
The 32-year-old pacer, however, is still awaiting medical clearance from Cricket Australia before departing for India. "It's a niggly one, the Achilles tendon. It's a slow process but it thrives on a bit of work, and I'd have to be bowling to prepare for the Ashes, so it may as well be in a game of cricket," Hazlewood said.
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