Josh Hazelwood on Australia's Super8's defeat and exit from T20 World Cup

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Josh Hazelwood on Australia's Super8's defeat and exit from T20 World Cup  24/06/2024  ICC24  Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet

Transcript

00:00Afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us for this post-match press conference.

00:04We've got Zoom integration as well, a Zoom audience coming in from our media

00:11hub in Barbados. We'll start with questions from here at the stadium and

00:16then we'll move on to our Zoom audience. So please everyone ensure that you have

00:23a microphone on your hand before you ask a question, especially for our

00:28transcribers. Who'd like to go first?

00:36Josh, it was a real onslaught from Rohit Sharma. Is that some of the best

00:42hitting that you guys have come across? Yeah, I've seen Rohit do that a few times now.

00:48Yeah, he's a world-class player so if you're a bit off your game that can

00:53happen. It just looked like he obviously targeted that short, sorry, the boundary

00:57with the win there for a while and then we probably reacted and then he hit a few

01:00the other side as well. So he's a class act and you expect him to do that a

01:04couple of times through a tournament. And where did it go wrong for you guys today?

01:08Do you think it was things in the bowling innings that could have tempered

01:13things a bit? Yeah, I thought the wicket was a pretty good wicket. It was

01:18probably a 190-par score and yeah they got the other side of it and we went

01:22underneath. So I thought the chase was well on target for quite a lot of

01:26the time there and probably until Kuldeep and Jasper, their eight overs,

01:30probably proved the difference again, as they usually do. But yeah, obviously

01:35fell apart at the end but the chase was well on target for a long time there.

01:40And what's the feeling like, I suppose, being on the verge of being knocked out

01:44of the tournament but you've still got another result that you're relying on?

01:47Yeah, it's a strange feeling I guess. You've got to wait till late tonight to

01:51find out. But yeah, we obviously can't do anything else than what we've done and

01:55we'll be hoping that Bangladesh can get the job done.

02:03Just a game overall, Josh. After the Afghanistan defeat, less than 30

02:08hours later, you're here against India. Just the turnaround and how challenging

02:13that was for you guys when you got into the island just late last

02:17evening? Yeah, I think it was fine. As part of international cricket, you're

02:21always travelling. Yeah, I think the guys came ready this morning and we played

02:27pretty well for the majority of the game. I think they'll just probably be more

02:31clinical in a few areas. But no, that's part of the game, I think.

02:35But as the wickets started falling, was there any talk of net run rate at all?

02:40Like, okay, let's get to a certain target so that we are above

02:43Bangladesh or Afghanistan? Yeah, definitely. I think probably once the

02:48bowlers sort of start to bat, that talk starts to float around and 180 was

02:53probably our score that we need to get to, I think. 175, 180. So we managed to

02:57get there. I think we're 0.3 maybe ahead. So yeah, fingers crossed tonight.

03:02Have you ever been in that position where you sat and watched another team

03:06kind of hopefully win a game for you? I don't think so, no. I think it was a first

03:10for me. I actually may have been in an IPL, but never for international cricket.

03:15So yeah, it's a strange one. And just finally, I mean, there's been a lot of

03:20talk about the fielding. Even today, it was sloppy, maybe not as sloppy as

03:24Afghanistan. Do you just put that to just the nature of the tournament, where

03:28you're traveling and playing? Or is there anything else to it?

03:32No, I think it hasn't been good enough, probably. I saw another, definitely one

03:38drop catch tonight, but maybe two. But yeah, I'm not sure what you could put it

03:44down to. The guys are always working as hard as ever, and they're fielding and

03:48training, and there might not be as many opportunities to work on it around games

03:53in these sort of tournaments. You're always traveling and playing. So yeah, it

03:58hasn't been good enough for the last few games in particular.

04:02I was going to ask about the drop catches as well, Josh. The fact that you're

04:06seeing some of the St. Vincent venue you guys hadn't seen

04:10before you got there, and you dropped five catches. Is that a factor?

04:15I'm not sure. It could play a part, I guess, being the new ground without... I mean, in warm-up,

04:23you take a few, but you only get one side to warm up on. One thing I guess

04:28here is it's very, very windy. So it's just as hard catching into the wind as

04:32is down breeze, as we saw today with India as well. So you see some really

04:37good fielders drop catches, and I guess it's out of the ordinary, but I think

04:41once you put all that together, new stadium, windy. Yeah, they're not excuses,

04:46but I guess that's something. And just overall, slipping up in both of

04:51these last two games. The fact they're so tight between games, the fact

04:56you can't train, just the batting, bowling and fielding. Has that been

05:01something that's been a challenge? I think you're used to it from... I think

05:07we play so much cricket, you don't really need to train, even if there was another

05:10day. I mean, the quicks wouldn't train, we wouldn't have a bowl, the batters might

05:14go down for a hit or end field. But I think you play that much cricket these

05:18days that you've got to adapt to that and be ready to go, whether you're training or

05:21not. So that's international cricket, as I said.

05:24Josh, just on the wind, did you sort of find it difficult as a team to sort of

05:30adjust to what it did to your lengths? Because it felt like it was a lot easier

05:33to find that sort of six to eight metre length from the far end than the near end.

05:36I don't know if that was... No, I think obviously Mitch and I are very

05:39different bowlers. He's trying to get it up and get it swinging.

05:42And we've seen that for 10 years. It's pretty devastating when it's on.

05:45So he's always got a freedom to do that and take wickets up front,

05:50which he usually does. So today wasn't the day.

05:53But I think from both, both ends are different.

05:57I mean, you're trying to cover that one side with the wind, but we saw enough get

06:01hit out to that other boundary from Rowat and other players.

06:04So you still can't duck and dive, you know, 100 per cent wise away from that side.

06:09And then just in terms of sort of what tonight looks like for you guys,

06:12do you expect you'll sort of all sit down and watch it together as a team,

06:14find somewhere in the hotel, that sort of thing?

06:16Yeah, I think so. It'd be nice if it started at one o'clock,

06:19but 8.30 is pretty late to sort of wait on pins and needles.

06:23But yeah, I assume we'll be pretty much together watching that game and hoping for the best.

06:29Josh, I mean, it potentially could be David Warner's last international game.

06:34Was there any talk or mention of that once the game finished?

06:38And have you had a chat with him?

06:40And just the fact that this could well have been the last time you shared a dressing room,

06:44an Australian dressing room with him?

06:46No, nothing's been said yet. I think we'll wait for,

06:50well, it might be said after this, before the game,

06:53but I think we'll wait till after the game and then we'll sort of,

06:57the career that's been, I guess, it's been unbelievable.

07:00So yeah, we'll definitely miss him around the group, out in the field and off field.

07:04So amazing all-format career.

07:08And just on that, like, how strange will it be a dressing room now?

07:11I mean, he had the Test retirement and the one-day retirement, but this is it, right?

07:14Like, so what's the dressing room going to be like without David Warner in it?

07:17Yeah, I guess we've had a little taste of it.

07:19So it's sort of been a slow burn with our Test cricket and ODI cricket and now T20.

07:24So life without him, we've sort of gotten used to it a little bit in New Zealand.

07:28And yeah, it's always different when you lose a player that's been there for so long.

07:35We'll move on and push forward.

07:39Josh, obviously there's been a lot of talk coming into this tournament

07:41about the chance to hold all three ICC trophies.

07:45And obviously that's still alive, depending on what happens tonight.

07:48But yeah, I guess, how do you process the disappointment in a T20 World Cup

07:54when things just happen so suddenly?

07:55Like, you'd played very well during the group stage and then, yeah,

07:59suddenly, you know, two bad days and it's almost over.

08:03Yeah, I remember the last two World Cups, we've probably had one bad day in each one.

08:08And we won one and didn't make the semis in the other.

08:10So it's pretty cutthroat.

08:13Definitely like the new format, how you get a bit more of a run at it.

08:16It's not sudden death straight off.

08:18But even South Africa, if they lost last night, they were out, basically.

08:21So that can be how cutthroat it is.

08:23They win six games in a row, lose one and they're out.

08:26So I guess that's the nature of T20 as well.

08:30You've got to be on your day, got to be on your game every day that you turn up.

08:32So, yeah, it's disappointing.

08:36But yeah, who knows what happens tonight.

08:38And win or lose, do you think there might be a bit of a changing of the guard

08:42in the T20 team, given the age of all you guys

08:46and the fact that it'll be another couple of years till the next World Cup?

08:49Yeah, they sort of come around pretty quick, the T20 World Cups, every two years.

08:53So I don't know, there might be a couple of changes.

08:56But I mean, a lot of the guys still playing the franchise cricket

09:00if they're not playing for Australia.

09:01So they're available to be picked.

09:02And there's some class players in our 11, sorry, in our 15.

09:07And we've got a couple on the bench as well.

09:08So you'd think it'd be an actual slow change.

09:12I don't think there'd be anything drastic.

09:16Just one last one on the format.

09:19Could things be improved a bit if it was reversed a little bit

09:22and the group games were perhaps the ones that were close together

09:26and you have a bit more time to breathe during the Super 8s?

09:30Yeah, potentially, I think.

09:33Yeah, you could just balance them out, I guess, with similar breaks.

09:37I can understand they want to sort of create the hype during the Super 8s

09:39and get a lot of games back to back.

09:41And it all comes to a head pretty quickly and with a lot of eyes on it.

09:46So yeah, I think every tournament can be improved when you look back at it.

09:50So, no doubt, this one will be the same.

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