Josh Hazlewood reckons a single round of Sheffield Shield cricket will be plenty for him and fellow left-armer Mitchell Starc before the Ashes get underway in Perth on 21 November. Australia’s selectors have pencilled both quicks in for three one-dayers against India later this month, but the pair are then expected to swap the white ball for the red when New South Wales host Victoria at the SCG from 10–13 November.
“We’ve definitely had chats about fitting in a Shield game,” Hazlewood said at a commercial event in Sydney. “I do think it’s important when there’s time for it. You don’t want to squeeze things in or rush for it.”
It means Hazlewood will almost certainly sit out the final three T20 internationals against India, scheduled for 2, 4 and 6 November. Starc no longer needs to think about the shorter format – he retired from T20Is earlier this year – so the timing suits him neatly enough.
“This year I’m going to miss a couple of T20s to do that. Which I certainly don’t like doing, missing games for Australia. But in the long run it is about getting the best prep for the Ashes as well. You can’t have everything and that’s the trade-off at the moment.”
The Shield fixture could be a rare chance for New South Wales supporters to see a stacked attack on home turf. Nathan Lyon hopes to play three of the state’s first four matches, while Steve Smith is tipped to drop in for batting time. Teenaged opener Sam Konstas is also set to feature, and by then he should know whether he has forced his way into the Test squad, which will be named after round three of Shield games.
Pat Cummins remains absent from the white-ball leg against India as he manages a back complaint. The national selectors still expect him to lead the side in the Ashes opener at Optus Stadium, but they want every spare training day in his diary between now and then.
Hazlewood sees the ODI series itself as useful conditioning. Three 50-over matches in six days offer around 30 overs of high-intensity bowling, roughly a Test-match worth of work. That, he believes, sets up nicely for the Shield game and then a week’s taper into the first Ashes Test.
“That’s why I put my hand up for as many tours as I can,” Hazlewood said. “Even if I only play two out of three on a tour, it just means I am still touching base with those formats.
“My game doesn’t change too much. I have been around long enough to duck and dive in each format and chop and change.”
At 34, Hazlewood admits he is juggling competing priorities: a home Ashes, a T20 World Cup in February and the chance of another ODI tournament in 2027. Managing the calendar, he argues, is now part of being a senior fast bowler. The current Ashes schedule – with healthy gaps between Tests one, two and three – leaves him confident he could, in theory, get through all five matches if his body behaves.
There is, of course, still time for plans to shift. Cricket Australia’s performance staff will keep monitoring workloads, and the players’ own recovery cues will matter just as much. For now, though, the most likely scenario is Hazlewood and Starc ticking over against India, ducking out of the tail-end T20s, and rolling into the SCG for one hard, red-ball hit-out before the oldest rivalry in the game picks up again on Australia’s west coast.
