The Australian team has been struggling across formats ever since the former skipper Steve Smith and David Warner were banned for their role in ball-tampering episode in South Africa last year and pacer Josh Hazelwood is relieved that the return of the two experienced batters would benefit even the bowlers.
“Every time Steve goes out to bat, he pretty much gets a hundred these days, so the time with the feet up is pretty important [for the fast bowlers],” Hazlewood told ESPNcricinfo.
Hazlewood added that Smith and Warner’s return would also benefit young batsmen in the side.
“It’s probably been the first time when you’ve had the top six with no real senior batsmen to feed off, I guess, around training and games, so they [the newcomers] have had to do all their learning from the coaches.”
“It’s just so important to have those couple of senior guys when you bring those couple of young guys into the top six to learn from. You just can’t teach some things as coaches, you have to learn out in the middle batting with a senior person, so I think the other young batters will really feed off having them back.”
Hazlewood believes that Warner and Smith, because of their experience, won’t take too much time to get used to international cricket after staying away from it for over a year.
“They’re class players and they really put you to the test and it really makes you get something out of the net session. They were a little bit rusty early on, it’s hard to prepare to face 140kph-plus if you haven’t been doing it, but you saw over the course of three or four overs how much improvement they had even in that short space of time, so there’s no doubt they’ll be ready to go when called upon,” he said.
Warner and Smith are expected to steer Australia’s campaign in the World Cup. And, the duo will also have a big role to play in the upcoming Ashes series later this year.