Josh Hazlewood analyses Team India ahead of World Cup finale

Courtesy of a convincing victory over South Africa in the semi-finals of the ongoing ODI Word Cup, Australia have once again made it to the finals of the marquee tournament, where they will take on India on November 19 at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Ahead of the high-voltage match, pacer Josh Hazlewood lauded the Rohit Sharma-led side and called them a quality side with no real weaknesses.

Notably, the Men in Blue are on song in the ongoing ODI World Cup, winning all ten matches so far. They have been incredible on all three fronts of the game and hence, Hazlewood is aware that it will be challenging for them to get over the line in the final. However, the pacer reminded that Australia know Indian conditions well courtesy of playing so much enough cricket against each other.

“We’ve played them a lot of times. We know them inside out, same with them. They’re a quality team, they’ve been on a march the whole tournament, no real weaknesses in their team, so, yeah, look forward to playing them on Sunday. I guess we saw a few cracks when we played them in Chennai chasing a small target, we were lucky enough to get a couple early,” Hazlewood was quoted as saying by News18.

Meanwhile, Hazlewood along with Mitchell Starc was incredible against the Proteas at Eden Gardens. They picked up quick wickets with the new ball as the conditions were appropriate for them to go about their business and the duo’s good start helped Australia bundle out South Africa for 212 runs.

Talking about his camaraderie with Starc, Hazlewood mentioned that they have been bowling together for a long time now and understand each other well. He added that they will aim to repeat the same against India in the final.

“Starc and I have bowled together for a long time now, we know each other’s games, and we both play well on the same night, which is pleasing. Hopefully, we can do that on Sunday as well, but… yeah, there’s a little bit in the wicket which we probably haven’t had, in the previous games, or in a couple here and there, but it was nice to get the ball on,” Hazlewood mentioned.