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The world's number one T20I bowler Josh Hazlewood is confident that bowlers will play a crucial role in the forthcoming T20 World Cup and the teams will not be utterly dependent on the power hitters.
The 2022 T20 World Cup will be played in Australia this year in October with the tournament to start on October 16. The Australian team won the last T20 World Cup and will look to defend its title on home soil. This will be Australia's maiden chance at hosting the T20 World Cup. The tournament will be played across seven venues. "Think T20 in Australia, it's probably a little bit better for the bowlers in a lot of regards. The outfields are bigger, the wickets have a bit more pace, you can use those boundaries to your advantage," said Hazlewood as quoted by ESPN. Australia is in the middle of the table with a run rate of 8.22 in domestic T20 games played over the past two years, which provides a far larger sample than T20Is. During the Super 12s stage, Australia visits five different locations, therefore each opponent they face will require them to adjust to a different playing surface. Over the last two seasons, T20Is have only been played in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra due to pandemic border limitations, with Canberra not hosting World Cup matches. The health of Australia's death bowling has come under some scrutiny, but in T20Is this year, with an economy rate of 9.85, they compare favourably to the other World Cup participants. While Mitchell Starc was rested for the India tour, a number of options were employed in the final overs against India, despite the fact that three of them Cameron Green, Daniel Sams, and Nathan Ellis are not in the World Cup lineup. "It was a great test being in that situation. A lot of guys got the opportunity to bowl at the end against some of the best hitters in the game on the flattest wickets and small boundaries. There's always stuff to work on, of course, what fields you want, what balls you want to bowl, but there's no practice like that and we'll be better off for the run," said Hazlewood as quoted by ESPN. One of just two quick bowlers in the top 10 at the moment, along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hazlewood is the current number one in the world in T20I bowling. (ANI)
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