Australian seamer Josh Hazlewood anticipates a difficult challenge against India in the 2023 World Cup semi-final on Sunday at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium. The right-arm seamer emphasized that the Men in Blue have no major flaws and have checked every box in the run-up to the final.
squad India has undoubtedly been the most in-form squad in the 2023 World Cup, steamrolling all opponents and going unbeaten in the group stage. The Men in Blue have covered all of their bases and have all of their players in top shape as they prepare to face Australia for the second time in the competition.
Hazlewood was sharp when he played South Africa in the semi-final. He talked about how he nailed a few top-player outs in Chennai. He shared his success with cricket.com.au. The seamer from New South Wales shared:
“I think they’re all across the board really. They’ve got good quicks, good spinners, good batters so they’re ticking every box. I guess we saw a few cracks when we played them in Chennai chasing a small target, we were lucky enough to get a couple early. I guess we saw a few cracks when we played them in Chennai chasing a small target, we were lucky enough to get a couple early. But there’s no real weaknesses as we’ve seen.”
Josh Hazlewood
After dismissing Ishan Kishan, Mitchell Starc dismissed Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer for ducks in the two teams’ group-stage encounter. Hazlewood might also have had Virat Kohli, but Mitchell Marsh botched a straightforward catch from which Australia lost.
Ahmedabad wicket was good to bat on – Josh Hazlewood
The 32-year-old admitted that the squad spent much time discussing how to improve their performance with the new ball against South Africa. He also anticipates that a pitch would provide something to Ahmedabad’s bowlers. He stated:
“It’s huge, and the bigger the game the more important it becomes. We spoke about that, we seem to start really well with the ball when we’re bowling second, probably more so than bowling first. So there was a big emphasis on that tonight. We talked about in a meeting and jumped out of the blocks firing tonight, which was very pleasing.”
Josh Hazlewood
He added:
“So we know the blueprint now if we’re bowling first, and hopefully go again on Sunday. We played England at Ahmedabad and the wicket was pretty good without being an absolute flat track, so I expect probably something similar to that.”
Josh Hazlewood