Josh Hazlewood Eyes T20 World Cup Return After Injury Setbacks

Josh Hazlewood had expressed confidence of being fit in time for Australia’s T20 World Cup 2026 opener despite recent injury concerns.

Josh Hazlewood has expressed confidence about being ready for the start of Australia’s T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, which will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka next month, after his Ashes hopes were derailed by injury. The senior pacer was ruled out of the opening phase of the England Test series due to a hamstring strain and later suffered an Achilles issue during his rehabilitation period.

As part of his recovery plan, Hazlewood will not feature in the latter stages of the Big Bash League, where he was named as a supplementary player for the Sydney Sixers. He will also miss the T20I series against Pakistan scheduled for late January. Instead, the fast bowler is aiming to regain match fitness through a warm-up fixture ahead of the World Cup early next month.

Australia are set to begin their T20 World Cup campaign on February 11 against Ireland. Selection chair George Bailey has earlier indicated that Pat Cummins could be given extra time if needed, but Australia are unlikely to carry more than one player who is unavailable at the start of the tournament.

“Everything’s going to plan. We took a few extra weeks once we couldn’t make the Test matches. I had a couple of bowls off the half-run last week. Running’s going well, all the strength stuff’s going well so, yeah, on track,” Hazlewood said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

The 35-year-old had been in excellent form during Australia’s white-ball series against India in October before picking up the hamstring injury. The issue surfaced after he bowled across three consecutive days in a Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the SCG. Looking ahead, Hazlewood hinted at adjusting his training methods as he prepares for red-ball cricket, with Australia’s Test series against Bangladesh scheduled for August.

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“Sometimes, when one thing goes and the other thing resurfaces. But it [the ankle] was probably another thing I’d been just managing over the last few years, and then it just creeps up. I guess when you start back up, sometimes your body doesn’t like that stopping and getting it going [again]. So probably not as much of a dive into these two little niggles,” said Hazlewood.

“But we’re still working on implementing training a different way a little bit. My gym and everything is still mostly the same, but I think purely from a bowling workload, leading into the next red-ball game, do as much as we can in terms of just dicing it up a little bit differently. Potentially bowling two or three days in a row and then having four or five days off and then doing that again, rather than Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,” he added.