Three weeks ago, Josh Hazlewood was playing alongside Virat Kohli with the same motive of winning the IPL 2023 for RCB. Now, come June 7, the pair will go head to head in what promises to be a mouth-watering clash for the summit of Test cricket: World Test Championship Final 2023.
Having spent the last two seasons at RCB, bowling number of balls to Virat, and counting his past experience of bowling to the ace India batter in some of the gruelling, tough contests in Test cricket, Australian Seamer opined on what makesKohli the great batsman that the 34-year-old is.
According to the lanky Australian seamer, it is Virat Kohli’s work ethic that puts him ahead of the rest of the pack.
Speaking with the ICC for its website, Josh Hazlewood said on Kohli: “I think it’s probably how hard he works (that stands out). His fitness first of all – and then his skill work and batting and fielding in particular.
“He is always out there (training) first and leaves last … and the intensity he trains at all the time is at such a high level it drags everyone else along for the ride. That can leak on to the other players and improve them as well.”
The senior Aussie pacer also had words of praise for his RCB teammate and India seamer Mohammed Siraj, who has grown leaps and bounds over the past two years.
“I was a bit late getting there (to RCB this year), but before then he (Siraj) was on fire. He is up there at the top of the wickets every time, and the economy rate was probably the thing as bowling at Chinnaswamy (RCB’s home ground) is impossible sometimes and he was going at six or six-and-a-half an over. His control was great and he is bowling well,” Hazlewood asserted.
Over the last 4 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, Hazlewood has been on the losing side, with India defeating Australia both home and away. But the WTC Final is in London, which brings different sort of challenges for everybody.
“It is a strange stat that as I think I have just played a lot of cricket against them. What is going to be interesting is playing them here in England. It is going to be interesting for both teams how they go about it and how different it is to playing them in Australia or in India as typically you only play them there. That is the exciting thing about it and everyone is looking forward to next week,” he added.
