Former Aussie Pacer Slams Josh Hazlewood for Prioritising IPL Over WTC Final 2025 at Lord's

Mitchell Johnson Slams Josh Hazlewood for Skipping WTC Final 2025 Practice Sessions

The former pace bowler from Australia, Mitchell Johnson, wasn’t happy with current pace bowler, Josh Hazlewood, after the Aussies faced a five-wicket defeat in the recently concluded WTC Final against South Africa. Johnson said that it raised eyebrows when the 34-year-old pacer, Hazlewood, rejoined the Indian Premier League 2025 edition when the season was stopped midway because of the border tensions between the two neighbouring countries, India and Pakistan.

 With Josh Hazlewood, many players decided to return to India to play the remaining games of the 18th edition of this cash-rich league tournament. The current Aussie player, the 34-year-old Josh Hazlewood, played for the team that won this edition of the IPL, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. RCB won the IPL Final for the first ever time in the history of the Indian Premier League.

The Bengaluru side reached the finals thrice before this year’s event. But in 2025, Patidar and his men defeated Shreyas Iyer’s Punjab Kings by six wickets on Tuesday, 3rd June 2025 at Shri Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Josh Hazlewood sizzled in this edition for the current champion team of the Indian Premier League. He picked up 22 scalps in this TATA IPL 2025 edition.

Praisdh Krishna was the highest wicket-taker of the 18th edition of the Indian Premier League with 25 scalps. Krishna won the Purple Cap while Josh Hazlewood picked up 22 wickets to his name. He was the third-highest wicket-taker in this season of the cash-rich league tournament, and he also picked up the most wickets for RCB as well in this edition of the TATA IPL 2025 season.

After seeing his performance in this season of the Indian Premier League, everyone thought that Hazlewood would run through the batting lineup of South Africa. But Josh picked up just 2 wickets in the entire red ball match of the WTC Final in 2025. Johnson has also played six IPL editions for three different IPL sides, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.

He said that Josh has had some fitness issues in the past, and that’s why his return to play the remaining season of the TATA IPL 2025 raised eyebrows. He also said that if the senior bowlers like Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc and Lyon are prolonging their careers just to win the Ashes later this year, then that is a wrong mindset.

He was also displeased to see players like Sam Konstas, Scott Boland and Josh Inglish, who were ready to perform in the country, weren’t picked for this all-important WTC Final. Johnson isn’t against an aging team. The batters like Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, and Marnus Labuschagne have done plenty of good things for Australian cricket along with the famous bowlers like Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon.

Now in the series versus the West Indies, the deserving players should get a chance. The Aussies would be touring the Caribbean to play three red ball games and five match series of the shortest format. Australia has announced a full strength squad for this both the series. The Australian tour of the West Indies in 2025 starts with the red ball series on Wednesday, 25th June 2025.