Josh Hazlewood
Josh Hazlewood – Professional Australian Bowler
Josh Hazlewood is a professional cricketer from Australia. He plays as a bowler for the national team and the local first-class club New South Wales. For his height and accuracy, he continues to be compared to former Australian player Glenn McGrath.
Josh Hazlewood: career
Hazlewood is a native of the provincial Australian town of Bendemeer, located in New South Wales, where he began his career. He has been playing cricket since childhood. According to the athlete himself, his older brother had a significant influence on him, who taught him to tough matches during their impromptu games in the backyard. This allowed Josh to join Tamworth at the age of 12 and feel comfortable on par with the adult group.
Еhe local New South Wales club offered the Australian a contract фt the age of 17, which he decided not to give up. Thus, Hazlewood became the youngest professional cricketer in his state.
The debut in the first-class took place in November 2008 at one of the largest locations on the continent – Sydney Cricket Ground. Josh took part in an ODI match against New Zealand, then on a tour of Australia.
Hazlewood continued to play for the national team at the U19 level, where he again became the youngest representative of the national team in the World Cup U19. The Chennai Super Kings selected the bowler ahead of the 2020/21 IPL in the 2020 offseason.
Josh Hazlewood: national team
The Australian made his international debut on February 13 2013 in the T20I match against the West Indies. Colleagues noted the high performance of Hazlewood, who made 7 shots and took 1 wicket in 41 runs.
The first Test game in the life of an Australian bowler took place on December 17, 2014 in a home match against India. Then Josh took 5 wickets in the starting innings, sacrificing 68 runs in the process. The effective play allowed the Australian to join the national team at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which triumphantly ended for the “green continent” representatives. Hazlewood’s contribution to the overall win was evident in the quarterfinal game against Pakistan, where he managed to take 4 wickets.
He earned his first Player of the Match award in November 2015 in the Day-Night Test, where he took the opening wicket against Martin Guptill in a new format of play. He even made it to the top among Australian bowlers with 6/70 in day-night Test matches later.
Hazlewood overcame his first career 50 wickets in just 12 Test, which allowed him to get ahead of the most reputable Australians – Shane Warne, Mitchell Johnson and Glenn McGrath.
However, January 2017 turned out to be a failure for the athlete. In 26 minutes of the match, with doubles interaction with Marcus Stoinis, the bowler did not manage to earn a single point and miss the first serve. In this regard, Josh became the owner of the so-called “diamond duck” (a kind of “duck” or failure of the player with the first ball).
Hazlewood’s failure at ODI only motivated him, after which the Australian spent two years restoring his own reputation. This led to the athlete taking 9 wickets in the Champions Trophy 2020, being in the top ten of the ICC ODI bowlers’ rankings.
Josh appeared in a tentative line-up ahead of a possible tour of England in July 2020. The athlete got a place in the Australian national cricket team, but COVID-19 caused the meeting to be postponed to August. He took his 200th-anniversary wicket at Test Hazlewood in a match against India on December 19, 2020.
Josh Hazlewood: personal life
The Australian bowler tries not to talk about his personal life. Hazlewood has a fairly large family (father, mother, older brother and younger sister). He is not married, but he has been dating his girlfriend Cherina Murphy-Christian for a long time, with no children.
In principle, he does not smoke, but he is not ready to give up alcohol. Since childhood, he was fond of several sports disciplines. So Hazlewood excelled in athletics, where he was the best in javelin and discus throw, as well as shot put, but cricket turned out to be his preference. According to the Australian, team interaction was a decisive factor in the choice.
It might seem interesting that according to information provided by friends of Josh’s father, the elder Hazlewood bet а $ 100 (equivalent to $82) with an English bookmaker in 2003 that his offspring would become a national team player before his 30th birthday. At that time, the rate was a fabulous 500/1. The bet paid off with interest in 2014, after which Trevor Hazlewood boasted of his luck and earned 50 thousand.
