Last Updated: May 02, 2023, 5:56 PM IST
Josh Hazlewood played his first competitive match in nearly four months. (Pic Credit: Sportzpics)
Michael Clarke, one of the finest batters to have played for Australia, thinks that CA cannot say not to BCCI
Former Australia captain Michael Clarke cannot fathom why Josh Hazlewood is playing in IPL 2023 rather than sweating it out at home to prepare for the upcoming Test challenges including the WTC final in June followed by the all-important Ashes in England.
Hazlewood sat out of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s first eight matches of the ongoing season before getting his first taste of action against Lucknow Super Giants on Monday night.
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Hazlewood, who was recovering from an Achilles injury that also kept him from representing Australia in the Border Gavaskar Trophy, churned out an impressive show taking 2/15 from three overs.
However, Clarke thinks playing in IPL isn’t the ideal preparation for red-ball cricket especially for Hazlewood who has spent a considerable time on the sidelines while recovering from an injury.
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“I don’t know why he’s (Hazlewood) over playing IPL. I don’t know why he’s not over here in Australia preparing to play Test match cricket,” Clarke told Fox Sports.
“I know they’ll have people over there, in the nets he’ll be bowling more than what the IPL players are bowling, in preparation for Test match cricket. But I just don’t know if him bowling three overs, four overs right now is his best preparation for an Ashes series, after the injuries he’s had and the amount of time he’s had out of Test cricket,” he added.
When asked if Cricket Australia can pull their Test stars out of the competition in India, Clarke responded, “They can do it now. They can stop you going, But it’s India. Are you kidding? No one is saying no to India.”
Clarke then touched upon the workload of young allrounder Cameron Green who is playing for five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians.
“We had the conversation about Cameron Green … is it in Cameron’s Green’s interest right now, with his body, with the Ashes series coming up, with the amount of cricket we have coming up, for him to be over there playing IPL? Or would he be better off taking four weeks rest, recover, rehab and start a pre-season?” Clarke said.
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Clarke thinks that unless CA can match the lucrative offer Green has from IPL, they cannot do anything.
“Unless Cricket Australia are going to say, ‘OK the IPL has just offered you $3 million for eight weeks … we’ll pay you that $3 million, you stay home and train with us,’ there’s nothing they can do,” he said.
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