Pacer Josh Hazlewood has hinted they may be better off playing in the Indian Premier League instead of Australian domestic cricket.
Hazlewood, who plays for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, is one of the one few Australian players who turn out in all three formats of the game and is part of the 26-man squad that was named last week.
The International Cricket Council confirmed on Monday that the Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia 2020 has been postponed, which opens up a window for the IPL to take place during its October window.
Under the current circumstances, with the coronavirus pandemic affecting the cricket calendar, Hazlewood also admitted the prospect of the IPL taking place creates some tough decisions for those with deals in the league.
“There are a few things to fall into place yet but the IPL is such a huge part of the year for a lot of players and probably the strongest T20 competition in the world, up there with the Big Bash, and you learn a lot about how to play your T20 cricket and how to play in those conditions,” he was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
“You’ve seen guys come out of it much better players so there’s a lot of positives to it, so if that takes a few games off us playing for New South Wales in the build-up to the international summer that’s a tough call, probably comes back to the individual,” he added.
He also said that it is imperative that players, especially fast bowlers, get to train while undergoing quarantine.
“As long as we can train during that period it will be okay, it’s if we come back and we can’t train during that two-week period,” he said.
“We’ve built these loads up as fast bowlers then two weeks really hurts us coming into a summer of Test cricket.
“As far as red-ball ball cricket goes I feel I only need one, maximum two games, to get ready for a Test. There have been summers where we’’ve come from a white-ball tour and only played one and it’’s been fine.”
