Josh Hazlewood is a household name in Australia’s formidable pace attack across formats. The Tamworth-born player makes a good pair with Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with the Aussie trio evoking fear among the best batting unit of the world.
Hazlewood was part of Australia’s sixth World Cup-winning campaign in India last month, where he claimed 16 wickets in 11 matches at 28.06, finishing the quadrennial event as the second-highest wicket-taker for Australia only behind leg-spinner Adam Zampa.
The Australian pacer is a familiar customer of moving the ball in the earlier part of the innings, explicitly the outswingers. The seam movement often changes in between matches his precision with the stock ball makes him distinguishable.
Hazlewood has been part of the IPL for the last four seasons. He started his stint with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2020 and spent two seasons there under MS Dhoni’s guidance before he was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the mega auction of IPL 2022 for INR 7.75 crore. He was recently released from RCB’s squad ahead of the IPL 2024 auction.
This makes him one of the contenders in the pool of 119 overseas players to bag the tag of the most expensive overseas player when he goes under the hammer. Let’s explore the possibilities on which the team can snap the services of the 32-year-old.
see also : 3 overseas players that will fetch most bids in IPL 2024 auction ft. Travis Head
3. Chennai Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings will certainly have plans to bring the Australian seamer back to the Yellow Army. Hazlewood picked up just one wicket in his first season with CSK in UAE but made a comeback in style with 11 wickets in nine games in their title-winning campaign in 2021.
Not to forget that CSK made the first bid for the Australian in the 2022 mega-auction only to stretch it a bit further. It was RCB to seal the deal for Josh Hazlewood in the end. The CSK think tank would love to reunite the new-ball pair of Deepak Chahar and Josh Hazlewood in their forces.
Hazlewood can make the best of his variations on the sluggish Chepauk track to curb runs as well as strike early wickets.
2. Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad will hope to uplift their morale after finishing at the bottom of the points table in the previous edition. The 2016 IPL champions have finished at last spot twice in the last three editions and the last time they qualified for the playoffs was 2020.
Bowling has been a major concern for the Orange Army with Bhuvneshwar Kumar lacking support in the powerplay overs. Although Marco Jansen’s addition was considered a major boost to the team, an economy rate of 8.56 and 9.89 hasn’t paid the trust. The South African will be part of SRH’s squad in IPL 2024, but the inclusion of Hazlewood will give them a new dimension to their plans for early overs.
1. Kolkata Knight Riders
Josh Hazlewood has the best chance of fetching bids from KKR given the fact they released all their overseas pace bowling options – Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, and David Wiese – ahead of the auction. KKR has a decent purse of INR 32.70 crore, though they have 12 slots vacated in their squad.
Hazlewood can take the mantle of leading the bowling attack of the two-time IPL champions. The Australian pacer has picked 35 wickets in 27 IPL games at an economy rate of 8.06 with the best figures of 4 for 25. Hazlewood can also fill the shoes of his Australian captain Pat Cummins at the franchise, perhaps not with the willow, but ask him to pick wickets. He will deliver.
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