Royal Challengers Bengaluru speedster Josh Hazlewood said his recent injury setbacks worsened after he tried to return to match cricket earlier than his body was ready for, a decision that ultimately delayed his full comeback. The Australian pacer also stressed that players must “respect injuries”, particularly once they are “on the wrong side of 30s”.
Hazlewood, 35, has been battling physical issues for nearly five months. He first picked up a hamstring problem during a Sheffield Shield fixture in November last year. His rehabilitation then brought further complications, including an Achilles/tendon concern and later a torn calf, which ruled him out of both the Ashes and the T20 World Cup. He also missed the opening phase of IPL 2026, but is now back in the mix and believes he has managed to cover “everything” he could in order to handle the intensity of IPL cricket.
Speaking ahead of RCB’s home match against Delhi Capitals on Saturday, Hazlewood said that returning from injury is never straightforward. “Any professional athlete who’s been injured knows what it takes to come back. Some recoveries are tougher than others,” he said. “This time around, it was obviously a fairly long time away from the game. A few things crept in, I think, mainly because I was trying to rush back—trying to be in the mix for the fourth or fifth Ashes Test or for the World Cup.”
He added that each injury comes with a timeline that has to be honoured. “Every time you go through an injury, you learn something. It’s mainly about respecting the window for recovery and the return-to-play process—the time it takes to get back.”
Hazlewood was pivotal to RCB’s title run last season and made his IPL return against the Rajasthan Royals. In that match, he took two wickets but also conceded 44 runs, with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel putting pressure on him. He then sat out RCB’s following game versus Mumbai Indians, a decision that was planned, before returning with impact in the home fixture against the Lucknow Super Giants. There, Hazlewood finished with 1 for 20. After acknowledging that he had erred by trying to play too soon previously, he said he added extra work at the training base to ensure he was properly recovered and match-ready.
“It’s really hard to recreate that intensity you get in training,” Hazlewood said. “I probably even had a few more sessions than I thought I needed to be ready. I’d say four or five days before the Rajasthan game, I felt I was ready, and I probably pushed pretty hard to come back for Chennai here—but it was probably a good thing that I held back and banked a few more sessions.”
He explained how T20 preparation is built differently from longer formats. “For T20, you don’t have to chase a huge volume in training. It’s more about hitting the right intensity that the match demands when you’re out there. That’s probably been the main checklist item during the last four weeks leading into this tournament, and I felt like I handled that as best I could. But once you’re out in the middle in front of a big crowd, with batters hitting you for six pretty much every ball, the intensity rises a lot.”
Hazlewood is among the limited number of T20 bowlers who do not lean heavily on a wide range of variations. Instead, he prefers to attack the length he would use in Test cricket, looking to trouble batters with awkward bounce. He has also worked on a tactical rhythm where he appears to be setting up an offcutter, then quickly alters his grip and goes back to bowling on pace.
“I probably don’t have a world-class slower ball, so it’s about confusing the batter as much as I can—whether that means showing it and bowling it, or showing it and not bowling it,” Hazlewood said. “So it’s a bit of cat-and-mouse, like it always is with batters.”
He added that opponents study bowlers differently. “Some batters are probably watching more closely than others, while some just react to what’s coming down. So I guess that’s another part of it—reading the batter and staying one step ahead all the time.”
Hazlewood further outlined what he believes is his strongest asset. “Obviously, my strength is landing the ball on the right length and hitting it hard—without floating it up and giving the batter an easy time to strike off that spot. That’s my strength, and the batters know that.”
The fast bowler also said he is keen to pick up fresh ideas from the rest of RCB’s bowling unit. He compared the group’s learning culture to the Australian setup, noting that “everyone just brings a little different skill set to the table”.
“I think we’ve got a balanced attack; everyone’s slightly different,” he said. “It feels like we’ve got every base covered. I also like to learn from the other guys in training, so that’s their time to try things out. Then, in the game, it’s about locking in your strengths.”
‘Pressure in an IPL game is on batters, not bowlers’
Hazlewood pointed to how scoring patterns have evolved in the IPL. Hundreds of runs have become routine, with 200-plus totals crossed 21 times in 23 completed matches this season, and six-hitting reaching a new peak. As many as 424 sixes have been struck so far (before Friday’s contest). While it may appear that bowlers are struggling in the middle overs, Hazlewood believes the pressure is actually moving elsewhere.
“From a bowler’s perspective, it almost takes a bit of pressure off,” Hazlewood said. “The batters are expected to get off to good starts. They’re expected to score big runs at the end. They’re probably expected to put up something like 230 in every T20 innings they play. So if you can get a batter two off six balls, the pressure they’re under in that moment is huge.”
He said the strain becomes visible on the field when batters cannot find boundaries. “You can see a batter almost melting out there—two off six and they can’t locate the gap, they can’t find the boundary. That feels like the biggest pressure in the game now, rather than maybe the old idea of a bowler needing to win it when it’s 40 off four overs at the end or something like that.”
Hazlewood added that the challenge is different now, but still enjoyable. “The game is always changing, and it’s a good challenge to have. But I feel there’s probably less pressure on the bowler these days because of how big the totals are—if that makes sense.”
