‘If you’re fit, you play’: Hazlewood throws down the gauntlet to Test selectors ahead of Indian summer

Josh Hazlewood has signalled his intent to play every Test match for Australia this summer and believes the preparation the nation’s fast bowlers are enjoying leading into the Border Gavaskar Trophy is their best in years.

The champion fast bowler will play his first one-day match for New South Wales in three years when he joins Australian captain Pat Cummins in the clash against Victoria at the Junction Oval in Melbourne on Friday.

Their return to cricket follows the starring role Mitchell Starc played in a losing side in the Sheffield Shield game earlier this week at the

MCG as Australia’s fast-bowling battery readies itself for the challenge to be presented by India over the summer.

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The 33-year-old featured in the white ball tour of Scotland and England last month but has had a break since and is looking forward to an extended lead-in to the opening Test in Perth beginning November 22 which will include a Sheffield Shield match for his state.

“You can do as much as you want the nets and (obviously with) the recent series in England, my one-day cricket is up to speed. It’s fine,” he said.

“But probably more important is the Shield game next week, to get out there and just have those longer spells, (and a) couple spells a day, the back-to-back bowling, all those things you need to sort of tick off, we haven’t had that opportunity in the last few years to do that. We just haven’t had the time with the schedule.”

Starc secured six wickets in the 37 overs he bowled against Victoria in the second round of the Sheffield Shield but Hazlewood is not planning for as significant a workload in the match in Sydney against Queensland beginning on November 1.

“No, that’s a bit too much. (But) it takes a lot for Starkey to stop bowling. So I don’t think anyone would have been saying anything,” he said.

“I think anything around 30 is a really good workout. As I said, (I want to) tick all those boxes of the back-to-back bowling and those sort of things. And … just sort of get the miles in the legs and get ready for Test cricket.”

THE FOLLOW-ON PODCAST: Cricket legend Brett Lee tackles the big Aussie Test selection questions, India’s surprise loss and New Zealand’s dream day.

Former fast bowling great Brett Lee told Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On this week that he hopes the champion trio were available for all five Tests against India, as well as the two match series to follow in Sri Lanka.

Aside from the Border Gavaskar Trophy, both defending champion Australia and reigning runners-up India are in a battle to qualify for the final of the World Test Championship next year.

Similarly to Starc, Hazlewood said he was keen to play every match if possible, but said this would clearly be related to the ability of the trio to retain their fitness through what is expected to be a testing summer. He last missed a Test match in the Ashes tour in 2023.

“We field the same question every year. If you are fit, you play. If you’re not, you don’t play. It is as simple as that. No one rests from a Test match,” he said.

“If you’re ready to go the day before, then you’re playing. If you’re not, you sit out. We’ve got enough in the stable to roll through a couple of guys who we know do can do a really good job and put real big pressure on us from time to time. (There are) no dramas there.”

The leading reserve for the series is expected to be Victorian veteran Scott Boland, who secured the wickets of Steve Smith, Sam Konstas and Nic Maddinson in his return to cricket after a knee injury in the Shield match at the MCG.

Hazlewood, who is considering nominating himself against for next year’s Indian Premier League, said he had been in contact with the 35-year-old and is confident he will perform for Australia again this summer if called on against either India or in the tour of Sri Lanka.

“I didn’t see too much of the Shield game, but I chatted to him a little bit after actually, just (sharing) a few texts, and he said he was a little bit rusty going in, but … got better as the game got going,” Hazlewood said.

“And he is someone who, I think, thrives on bowling as well. The more he plays, the better he gets, and we know what he can do at the top level, so I’ve no doubt he’ll play a part some stage in the summer, or even overseas in the Test tours to come.

“It’s great. He is a great guy to have around the group and (he is a) really good, really good competitor when he’s out there.”