Josh Hazlewood, who has missed a substantial cricket Test in recent years through injury, returned early from the IPL after reporting side pain despite scans in Australia showing no damage. He returned to bowling ahead of the team’s departure to England this weekend for the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the Ashes.

Hazlewood played the last of his three matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 9 and has a total of nine shootouts in IPL 2023.

“Josh Hazlewood returned from IPL last weekend after experiencing mild side pain after completing his final IPL match,” a CA spokesperson said.

“After a short period of rest and prevention, Hazlewood returned to high intensity bowling last week and will continue to increase his bowling workload in preparation for the WTC and Ashes Series. Hazlewood is deemed fit and available for the WTC and Ashes series.

Since the start of this UK series, Hazlewood have only been able to play four Tests, although in Pakistan and Sri Lanka this was due to the balance of the Australian team where they included additional spinners.

He was outstanding in his comeback against South Africa earlier this year where he was strong with an inverted swing and took five wickets in the match. When Hazlewood was selected at SCG to replace Scott Boland as one of the quick two, it showed that he was still a first-choice attacker. In England he took 36 wickets at 23.58 from eight Tests.

During the same period in which his testing was limited, Hazlewood’s status as a T20 bowler had improved significantly and he achieved a No. 1.1 ranking in June 2022 after helping Australia to winning the T20 World Cup for the first time.

“If you need to focus on strong spells or throw a few more balls in practice when playing white balls, with maybe not 100% loss for that game, then that puts you in a better place. for the Test series that follows,” he said. “Just a bit of Drberita Gadget while we’re chatting with the coaches or the medical staff. That’ll be something I’ll do in the next little period.

Although Australia are confident they avoided a significant injury problem days before leaving for England, they have additional resources to turn to if needed. Michael Neser and Sean Abbott, who play for Glamorgan and Surrey respectively, will join the squad for their training camp ahead of the WTC final against India.

Neser ended his last league game against Sussex with a century after scoring a career-best 7 for 32, including a hat-trick, against Yorkshire.

Australia initially fielded 17 players for the tour but had to be reduced to 15 for the May 28 final.

As has become the norm for them, there are no pre-match tour fixtures with the team instead training in Beckenham, south London, ahead of their final game against India on June 7. The six tests of the tour were played in less than two months.