Hazlewood: England will bring an 'unbelievable' batting line-up for the Ashes

Josh Hazlewood is expecting to play a Sheffield Shield match in the lead-up to the Ashes in November as he prepares to counter an "unbelievable" England batting line-up, which he believes will be strongest they will have brought to Australia during his career.

Hazlewood recently played five out of the six white-ball matches against South Africa having sat out the T20I series against West Indies following the Tests while Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc have not featured in the last few weeks. Hazlewood won't be in action on the field in September but wants to keep getting miles in the legs ahead of the first Test in Perth rather than having extended downtime.

"It felt like over the last 12 months, the best way for me to go about it is just keep on ticking over, keep playing, not having too long off bowling," Hazlewood said at an event to promote Play Cricket week. "I find…getting back to that intensity and volume is quite tough for me. So if I can just keep staying up there, match intensity as long as I can, then that's sort of the best way for me to go about it."

Hazlewood, who played four Tests during the 2023 Ashes, is expecting a tough challenge from the England batting line-up. At times in the recent India series they showed a more nuanced approach rather an all-out attack, before falling to six-run defeat at The Oval. A 7 for 66 collapse triggered by a stroke from Harry Brook promoted significant debate after a spectacular hundred.

Brook, currently the No. 2-ranked Test batter behind Joe Root, will be on his first Test tour of Australia and in nine T20Is in the country in 2022 had a top score of 20. His first-class experience is limited to one England Lions outing in 2021 and how he adjusts to conditions will be key to the team's prospects. So, too, the performance of Root who has yet to score a Test century in Australia where he averages 35.68 from 14 matches.

"England has obviously been quite flat wickets recently, the last few years, and it's been a really dry summer as well, so they are probably starting to get tired and spin now," Hazlewood said. "I think [Brook] will adapt. He's a good player. He's at the top of the rankings for a reason, and he'll be a tough challenge.

"When [Root] first came out, it was a little bit of a different attack. It was probably [Mitchell] Johnson and [Ryan] Harris and [Peter] Siddle. Gaz [Nathan Lyon] has been around a long time now, so he was probably there, but we sort of just jumped on the back of that

"I think a fresh face like Harry Brook might find it easier. There's no baggage behind him and he can just come out and play with freedom as he does. Joe's probably in the form of his life as well. So they're an unbelievable batting line, to be honest. The top seven have done really well...so it's a challenge."

Asked whether it will be strongest batting up England have sent to Australia in recent times, Hazlewood said: "Yeah, definitely."

Australia have a three-match T20I series against New Zealand in early October then India visit for ODIs and T20Is ahead of the Ashes. It remains to be seen how Hazlewood's schedule will be juggled to allow him a red-ball outing - the fourth round of Sheffield Shield matches starting on November 10, when New South Wales play Victoria at the SCG, may be too close to the start of the series - but he is keen to have the opportunity to replicate long-form intensity.

Last season Hazlewood played one game for New South Wales ahead of the India Test series, and though he went wicketless across 24 overs against Queensland he was Australia's best bowler early in the opening Test in Perth before his series was disrupted by injury. This winter, however, he was able to play all four Tests against South Africa and West Indies, albeit the workload on bowler-friendly Caribbean surfaces was not extreme.

"The Test [only] guys will play more than one [Shield game]. They'll probably play two or three, but everyone's on different programs," he said. "I used it last year and I've sort of found that it's very beneficial. Time on the field, multiple spells in a day, it's sort of hard to replicate it at training. So, to get that before a Test series is pretty pivotal, I think."