‘India Was the Best Place to Prepare For the WTC Final…’ – Josh Hazlewood Responds to Mitchell Johnson’s Criticism

Pacer Josh Hazlewood has broken the silence on Mitchell Johnson’s comment, over Australia’s recent loss to South Africa in the World Test Championship 2025 Final. The former Australian pacer raised questions over Hazlewood’s decision to head back to India for the Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs. According to Johnson, the 34-year-old pacer should have stayed with the national side to prepare for the WTC 2025 Final. He expressed that Hazlewood’s decision to do otherwise raised quite a few eyebrows. 

Johnson also stated that the Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer had quite a few concerns with regards to his injuries. He was nursing a shoulder niggle, after which he returned to India for the IPL playoffs. Hazlewood bagged 22 wickets in the IPL this season. But he could only yield two wickets against the Proteas in the WTC 2025 Final. 

“We’ve seen concerns about Hazlewood’s fitness in recent years, and his decision to prioritise returning to the delayed Indian Premier League over his national team preparations raised eyebrows,” Johnson wrote in his column in The West Australian. 

Josh Hazlewood Gives It Back 

Hazlewood has finally broken the silence on the matter. He said that he wasn’t aware of any of the comments made by the former Australian pacer until recently. He took a dig at Johnson, saying that the players in the team know what’s going around, and they’re good enough to deal with the same. 

“I haven’t seen any of that, to be honest. We know what’s going on inside our rooms. It seemed far and away the best place to get ready for any type of cricket that was coming up. The weather was definitely a factor as well. Just getting over there and playing intense competition like that, it’s hard to replicate in training”, Hazlewood told the Sydney Morning Herald.

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Hazlewood also had a clear reason behind returning to India for the IPL playoffs early this month. He mentioned that the conditions in Australia were pretty much wet due to the rain around, and there wasn’t any place for him to turn up for practice. 

“Sydney, it was raining, and I had nowhere to bowl. I got to Brisbane for three or four days, and it was very wet. We were lucky to get on. I just thought the best place to bowl was India. We were still in the competition, we were going to play the semis, and I was going to be there for 10 days. I think it was comfortably the best option”, he concluded.

Australia will commence its new WTC cycle against the West Indies on June 25 in Bridgetown. They will be without the services of two of their prime batters in Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith. While Labuschagne wasn’t picked for the series citing his form, Smith was ruled out of the first Test due to an injury that he sustained in the WTC 2025 Final at Lord’s. 

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