Josh Hazlewood admits that the windy weather in West Indies is the reason why Australia dropped catches in 2024 T20 WC

Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood has admitted that the windy weather in the West Indies is the reason why the Aussies dropped catches in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

Josh Hazlewood's comments came after the Australian team lost to Rohit Sharma's Indian team in their final Super 8 match of the T20 WC. The Kangaroos were in desperate search of a win against India yesterday as it would have kept them alive in the race for the semi-finals. However, fate had planned something else for the 2021 Champions.

Rohit Sharma storms Mitchell Marsh's Australia

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma brought along a storm with his bat and amazed everyone inside the Darren Sammy Stadium in St. Lucia. Rohit smacked 92 off just 41 at a scary and daunting strike rate of 220+ after his opening Virat Kohli, who registered his second duck of the World Cup, was removed by Josh Hazlewood.

Virat Kohli had sent Josh Hazlewood's off-stumped delivery in the air with Tim David making a very effort to catch out the dangerman. But Rohit Sharma's desolation didn't stop as he continued to entertain the fans with his aggressive and courageous stroke play.

His knock, which included 7 fours and 8 sixes, was complimented by Suryakumar Yadav's 31 off 17, Shivam Dube's 28 off 22, and Hardik Pandya's 27 off 17. India eventually scored 205 runs which would not have been possible if Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh had completed the catch of Pandya who batted at a strike rate of more than 150.

This was not the first time Australia dropped a catch in the T20 World Cup. They had put up a terrible fielding performance during their loss to Afghanistan in their second Super 8 game. Their poor fielding had seen them lose the entire match against the Afghans and Josh Hazlewood, in yesterday's press conference, opened up on how it happened.

Josh Hazlewood blames West Indies' conditions and new stadium

When asked to shed light on Australia's Pakistan-like fielding, Josh Hazlewood started by speaking about the conditions in the new stadiums. Hazlewood claimed that the region where the venue is located is very windy and breezy and therefore it's quite tough for the fielders to take catches.

Josh Hazlewood also revealed that the Aussies had practiced on only one side of the ground and during the session, they had taken a few catches. The right-arm pacer also said that due to the down breeze, it gets much more tougher for players to take catches and claimed that it can't be an excuse for good Australian players making such silly mistakes.

"Not sure. It could play a part I guess. Being a new ground. I mean in the warm-up we took a few but you only get one side to practice and warm-up on. One thing here I guess is very very windy. So it's hard catching into the wind as there's a down breeze. You've seen some very good fielders drop catches, I guess it's out of the ordinary. But when you put all that together - new stadium, windy." - Josh Hazlewood said.