“He had one eye on IPL” - Dinesh Karthik’s massive praise for RCB bowler amid SA vs AUS 2025 WTC final

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batting coach and mentor Dinesh Karthik revealed how Josh Hazlewood balanced his preparations for the business end of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) and the World Test Championship (WTC) Final. The right-arm pacer had re-joined the franchise after dealing with a shoulder niggle, and proceeded to play a massive role in the playoffs, before joining the Australian squad in England.

The short gap between the culmination of the rescheduled IPL and the WTC Final meant that the players involved in the red-ball summit clash had to begin their preparations while still playing white-ball cricket. Australia skipper Pat Cummins had revealed how he built up his bowling workload in the nets while playing for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

Hazlewood also took a similar approach to work on his white-ball skills for RCB in the playoffs, while also increasing his workload for the Australian Test team ahead of the WTC Final.

Dinesh Karthik hailed the RCB pacer's professionalism as he had the hard task of increasing his bowling workload in the gruelling heat in India.

"Josh Hazlewood was the walking example of what professional is in the sport - in the first few weeks he was just preparing for T20 cricket but in the last 2 weeks, when he cameback, he had one eye on IPL but in practice he slowly increased the workload with 6 overs, 8 overs, 12 overs - that in the heat of India was phenomenal," Dinesh Karthik said during commentary on Day 2 of the WTC Final.

Hazlewood was the joint third-highest wicket-taker of IPL 2025 with 22 scalps to his name, ending up only behind Prasidh Krishna and Noor Ahmad. The RCB pacer bowled a stunning spell of 3-21 in the Qualifier 1 clash against the Punjab Kings, and also dismissed Priyansh Arya in the Final.

Josh Hazlewood finished with figures of 1-27 off 15 overs in first innings of 2025 WTC Final after heroics for RCB

The right-arm pacer bowled a tight spell in the first innings of the 2025 WTC Final as well, accounting for the wicket of Tristan Stubbs with a peach of a delivery. He got the ball to nip back in, breaching the batter's defence to castle him and reduce the Proteas to 30-4 in the 21st over.

Hazlewood has a massive role to play on Day 3 as the last batter in the line-up, with Australia looking to stretch their lead as much as possible. The defending champions are placed at 144-8 in their second innings as Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon share the crease.