Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood recently in an interview, gave an insight into how England batters might come up against the Australian bowlers in the upcoming Ashes 2025.
The series will be played in Australia, with the Aussies holding the urn at the moment. The last series was drawn 2-2 in 2023, that saw Australia retain the Ashes.
Meanwhile, England have not won an Ashes series on Australian soil since Andrew Strauss skippered them to a 3-1 success in 2010-11. This will be a litmus Test for England skipper Ben Stokes with a weakened bowling attack in the absence of Stuart Broad and James Anderson.
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No Baggage Behind Harry Brook - Josh Hazlewood
England are coming off a drawn Test series against India recently and Josh Hazlewood predicts the visitors to keep up with their attacking intent with the bat.
"Yeah, definitely. "England has obviously been quite flat wickets recently, the last few years, and it's been a really dry summer as well, so they are probably starting to get tired and spin now," Hazlewood said. "I think [Brook] will adapt. He's a good player. He's at the top of the rankings for a reason, and he'll be a tough challenge” said Hazlewood.
The Aussie pacer further said that Joe Root and Harry Brook will be the two key batters for England in the upcoming Ashes series. Root is in the form of his life as he recently scored over 500 runs in the Test series against India. He is less than 3000 runs away from overtaking Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 15921 Test runs.
"I think a fresh face like Harry Brook might find it easier. There's no baggage behind him and he can just come out and play with freedom as he does. Joe's probably in the form of his life as well. So they're an unbelievable batting line, to be honest. The top seven have done really well...so it's a challenge” Hazlewood added further.
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Ashes 2025 From November 21-January 8
The Australian pacer also gave an important update on his fitness. He played the white-ball series against South Africa after skipping the white-ball series against West Indies with Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc away from the game for a while as well. The Ashes 2025 will be played from November 21-January 8, with all of Australia’s premier Test bowlers set to be available for selection.
"It felt like over the last 12 months, the best way for me to go about it is just keep on ticking over, keep playing, not having too long off bowling," Hazlewood said at an event to promote Play Cricket week. "I find…getting back to that intensity and volume is quite tough for me. So if I can just keep staying up there, match intensity as long as I can, then that's sort of the best way for me to go about it” Hazlewood concluded saying.
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