Australia's in-form pacer Josh Hazlewood believes he is bowling at the best of his abilities skillwise ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 final against South Africa. Hazlewood is high on confidence after playing a major role in Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title win.
"As long as the shoulder came good, I was always going to head back over, and I was pretty confident that it would," Hazlewood told cricket.com.au.
"It was a good couple of weeks; everything went to plan as best it could.
"To get the chocolates in the IPL was another amazing experience in the final – anytime you play at that ground (Narendra Modi Stadium) and it's a close to a full crowd, it's pretty cool."
Hazlewood eager on playing maiden WTC final
Hazlewood recalled the last time he missed out on playing in the WTC final against India. Scott Boland replaced him and took five wickets. He feels his statistics have been good in the last year and hopes his body supports him.
"I was quite close last time, I just had more of an interrupted IPL leading into that and wasn't quite up to scratch," Hazlewood said about missing the WTC 2023 final.
"But I feel in much better place this time around, and I think in any format, my numbers over the last two years have been pretty good, so I've got a lot to fall back on.
"Skill wise, I still feel like I'm bowling the best I have in my career and it's just a matter of the body holding up, which it has been in the last few months."
Hazlewood on changes in training
The 34-year-old has had a few injuries in the last few years. He said that he made a few changes to his training sessions to manage the workload.
"The intensity is a big one to tick that box, so we're definitely adapting training to get those back-to-back days in; a big day followed by another bowling session the day after to try and get our head around it," he said.
"Dicing up training and bowling workloads a little bit differently and hopefully we get a different result."
Hazlewood on ticking all boxes during IPL
Hazlewood also talked about keeping the intensity high during the IPL. He expects to increase his workload in the lead up to the WTC final at the Lord's.
"With it being a final, it's all about this week and putting a good performance over the next few days and then into the game," he said.
"I ticked over some good overs just before the (IPL) final in Ahmedabad, in different weather than (England's), so it was quite a tough session.
"Then every time you play a game in IPL, you're probably going to get almost seven or eight overs in … with warm-ups.
"I had a number of times where I bowled back-to-back days at high intensity with the game usually being one of those."
Hazlewood's England record
Hazlewood has a good record in England, taking 52 wickets from 12 Tests at an average of 26.07, including two fifers.