Australia doesn't take an ICC final defeat easily. That the loss came after 15 long years certainly won't be forgotten soon. Australia's only fourth and latest ICC final loss came at the hands of South Africa in the World Test Championship (WTC 2025) Final at the Lord's Stadium. Heading into the finale clash, Australia were heavy favorites to topple a team, who had never won an ICC trophy for over 27 years. However, the tables turned, and the Proteas stunned the mighty Australians. Following the loss, former pacer Mitchell Johnson wants some tough calls to be made.
Josh Hazlewood, who was managing a minor shoulder injury and missed a few games for RCB in the IPL 2025 season before the T20 league was postponed, chose to return to play the knockout stages of the IPL rather than heading to England to practice for the WTC Final. The veteran pacer averaged 13.6 with the ball in 2024 and took just two wickets in the WTC Final after regularly gaining workloads during training sessions in IPL.
“I haven’t seen any of that, to be honest,” Hazlewood told this masthead when asked about Johnson’s column ahead of Australia’s opening Test against the West Indies on Wednesday. “We know what’s going on inside our rooms. It seemed far and away the best place to get ready for any type of cricket that was coming up. The weather was definitely a factor as well. Just getting over there and playing intense competition like that, it’s hard to replicate in training.
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“Sydney, it was raining, and I had literally nowhere to bowl. I got to Brisbane for three or four days, and it was very wet. We were lucky to get on. I just thought the best place to bowl was India. We were still in the competition, we were going to play semis, and I was going to be there for 10 days. I think it was comfortably the best option.”
Josh Hazlewood & Lyon have no intention of retiring from Tests
Hazlewood further stated that he is bowling as well as he has in his entire career across all three formats of the game. On the other hand, off-spinner Nathan Lyon said he has no such intentions of slowing down, despite having a dismal WTC Final against South Africa.
“Regarding ‘Johnno’, there’s nothing really to be said there,” Lyon said. “We never take any of our positions for granted. There’s that much competition within the squad … and guys putting the senior players under pressure.
“There’s no one planning a farewell tour or anything like that. I don’t see there’s a reason why the guys can’t keep going for a number of years. They’re only doing that for the betterment of Australian cricket. We want to play in games, we want to win games.
After the WTC 2025 Final, Australia will next be seen playing a Test series against West Indies in the Caribbean.
