Ashes 2017/18: Josh Hazlewood Warns England Ahead of Boxing Day Test

Australia’s leading fast bowler, Josh Hazlewood has put extra pressure on the England bowling attack telling them they are not doing good enough job with the bat either.

Notably, Hazlewood took a fifer in Australia win by an innings and 41 runs in the third Test at the WACA to regain the Ashes urn.

England seamers, particularly experienced Stuart Broad and James Anderson have struggled to extract swing and seam movement from the pitches so far, as their pace has also gone down considerably.

Hazlewood stated the side’s mentality of wanting to decimate the visitors by targetting the tailenders ahead of the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“We know if we get them four or five down then we can really go through that bottom half pretty quickly. On any wicket. We don’t really need much on the wicket to take those last six wickets. It’s about grinding it out, getting those first four or five. That’s been one of the big differences, our middle to lower order has wagged a fair bit this summer,” Hazlewood was heard saying to the reporters.

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Australia’s pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins have targeted the England lower-order batsmen with short pitch deliveries which had paid rich dividends, and they affirmed that they would continue doing so in the remaining two Tests.

However, Starc will miss the fourth Test with a bruised heel, as Jackson Bird replaces him after sitting out of the side for the most of the year. In the four innings, Australia’s tailenders have had to bat in this series, as their last five wickets had added 100 or more runs three times. On the contrary, England had added 100 runs just once in the six innings they have batted.

The 26-year-old Hazlewood admitted Melbourne pitch will be flat and will offer very little assistance to the bowlers of either side.

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“It hasn’t been great the last couple of years for quicks. It’s a very flat wicket, I’d say it’s the flattest in Australia. It’s quite evenly paced, there’s no real sideways movement, no real swing and it doesn’t spin much. You just have to be patient as a bowler and as a bowling group to build that pressure and get your wickets that way.” Hazlewood signed off.

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