Some bad habits with action caused my back injury, reveals Josh Hazlewood
Australia’s Josh Hazlewood has revealed that a few bad habits he picked up with his action during the summer of 2017-18 was the trigger for the back injury that followed. After poor performances against South Africa and India, Hazlewood returned to his best during this year’s Ashes in England.
With 21 wickets at 25.90, Hazlewood affirmed his status as the talisman of the Aussie bowling attack back in the Australian summer of 2017-18. But as it turned out, he ended up getting into "bad habits" with his action, which eventually led to him suffering a stress fracture in the back and missing four months of cricket.
"I just got into some bad habits, probably bowling to England here when they had a lot of left-handers. I kept falling away, and it kept getting worse and worse. Got a little more lateral flexion than what I like and that was the cause for the two stress fractures basically. Probably wasn't getting all my momentum going to the target," Hazlewood said, reported Cricbuzz.
The 28-year-old then went through one of his leanest phases with the ball in his career, averaging 39.25 away to South Africa and 30.61 when India visited. He was left out of the World Cup squad but made a resounding comeback during this year's Ashes, where his 20 wickets came at 21.85 apiece. And he has continued his good form since recently recording his best first-class figures of 6/35 to help New South Wales post a big win against hosts South Australia in Adelaide.
"I made a few little changes action-wise. Probably nothing too massive. Just getting things a little straighter. I did some work with that with NSW, with Andre before that Australian A trip. Just getting everything back in line and getting the benefits now. Everything feels really nice and I'm using all my energy. There's a bit more on the ball I guess," he said.
For now, Hazlewood has his eyes on the next Shield game against Western Australia at the SCG, starting next week. But soon, Pakistan will be visiting and the tall seamer reckons he might have to go into the video room to get a sneak peek of some of the new faces ahead of the Brisbane Test.
"I generally will if there's something new, if there are a couple of new players, which always is with Pakistan. They generally don't play in the IPL. Guys generally come across them in county cricket. There's always someone who's played someone and it overlaps quite a lot these days," Hazlewood added.
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