Chennai Super Kings suffered a huge blow when Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood decided to withdraw from Indian Premier League in order to stay fresh for upcoming Ashes and hectic international schedule. (More Cricket News)
Hazlewood, who was part of CSK’s forgetful campaign in IPL 2020 in UAE, has been in and out of quarantine and bio-bubble since August last year. The 30-year-old pacer said bio-bubble fatigue was the biggest concern for him as he decided to stay back and spend time with family and stay fresh for the upcoming international commitments.
"It's been a long 10 months in bubbles and quarantine at different times, so I decided to have a rest from cricket and spend some time at home and in Australia in the next two months," Hazlewood told cricket.com.au on Wednesday.
"We've got a big winter ahead too. The West Indies is going to be a long tour, with Bangladesh (T20 tour) potentially thrown on the end of that. Then potentially the T20 World Cup leading into the Ashes, so it's a big 12 months,” the pacer added.
This is the third withdrawal for an Australian player from this year’s IPL. On Wednesday, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s all-rounder Mitchell Marsh had pulled out and was replaced by Jason Roy. While Josh Philippe of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had also had withdrawn from this year's IPL.
With the pulling out of the IPL, Hazlewood is now available for the back end of the domestic season. He is expected to be available for NSW for the Sheffield Shield final if they qualify.
"I haven't been bowling a great deal ... workloads are a bit too low … hopefully I can use the next two weeks to build up and if we're in the Shield final I can play that," the pacer said.
Many fans were quick to blame presence of Cheteshwar Pujara as the reason for Hazlewood’s withdrawal. Pujara had frustrated Hazlewood and his fellow pacer during tour of Australia and fans suggested that prospect of bowling to him again in nets forced Hazlewood to stay away from IPL. Here are few of the tweets doing round in social media.
