IPL 2023: “Tonight was a steppingstone” – Josh Hazlewood after LSG vs RCB Encounter

IPL 2023: Josh Hazlewood made his debut for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) camp after the team’s eight matches in the 16th season of the Indian Premier League. Josh returned to Cricket after months of Achilles injury.

Along with half of the IPL 2023 tournament, Hazlewood also missed the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Despite traveling to India for the tournament, his Achilles didn’t support him to get back on the cricket field and play for his country.

The Australian Fast-Pace bowler instantly took two wickets in the game for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Josh Hazlewood ended his match spell with the figures 3-0-15-2. With an economy of 5, Josh played an impactful role for RCB.

IPL 2023: Josh Hazlewood on RCB’s performance against LSG

Josh Hazlewood got into a conversation after the match in the post-match ceremony. He believes it was a good chance to play on this pitch. Considering he and the team have played a major part of their tournament on the Chinnaswamy stadium, Bengaluru, which is the complete opposite of Lucknow’s slow and low-scoring pitch.

Josh called the Chinnaswamy’s pitch a batting paradise and said it is good for a change to occasionally have one pitch for the bowlers, making the game a low-scoring encounter. He believed it was a tight and intense game and at no point in the game one team was completely out of the race to win.

It started in Siraj’s first over. I think a wicket and one run are offered. It was a great start and we sort of jumped on the back of that. I think at half time we knew we were still in the game it was a tough wicket to bat. We knew we had to bowl them out to win. If they had seven-eight batters bat the 20 overs, they were going to get 130 runs. It was all about attacking and taking wickets. It was nice to have a hit out in the middle tonight. Achilles is feeling pretty good. Tonight was a stepping stone,” said Josh Hazlewood after the match.