"It may as well be in a game of cricket" - Josh Hazlewood hopes to use IPL 2023 for Ashes series

Australian and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) seamer Josh Hazlewood has hinted at using IPL 2023 to warm up for the 2023 Ashes series in England in June. The 32-year-old suggested at returning to India for the 15th edition of the tournament in the second week of the same.

The Royal Challengers will be without the services of one of their leading bowlers as Hazlewood is yet to recover from his Achilles injury. Hazlewood was with the Test squad during the recent India tour, but returned home after two matches and was not named for the ODI leg of the tour.

Speaking to The Age, the new-ball bowler admitted that the first game of a long summer is decisive as it dictates how the rest of the season will transpire. The Aussie said:

"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. The first long-form game of the summer is always a bit of make or break. If you get through it, you can keep going and going, but if you don’t, then it’s back to square one."

The New South Wales seamer has spent a majority of the past two summers on the sidelines. He played only the first Ashes Test of the 2021-22 series and played only one of the two matches against the West Indies last year, followed by returning for the final game of the three-match Test series against South Africa.

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"T20 is a lot different to Test and even one-day cricket" - Josh Hazlewood

Josh Hazlewood celebrates a wicket. (Credits: Twitter)

Hazlewood suggested that T20 cricket is slightly friendlier compared to the other two formats as it involves fewer warm-ups. He stated:

"Everything is ticking along according to plan, so I’ll be heading over on the 14th depending on how the next two weeks go. 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."

"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."

The veteran bowler did well for RCB in IPL 2022, picking up 20 scalps in 12 games at an average of 18.85.