Will Josh Hazlewood play in T20 World Cup 2026?

In a major boost for the Australian cricket team, pace spearhead Josh Hazlewood has revealed that he has resumed training and is confident of featuring in the T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka next month.

Despite injury concerns, Hazlewood was earlier named in Australia’s 15-member provisional squad for the T20 World Cup. The final squad submission is due on January 31.

“Everything’s going to plan. We took a few extra weeks once we couldn’t make the Test matches.” Hazlewood told ESPNcricinfo. “I had a couple of bowls off the half-run last week. Running’s going well, all the strength stuff’s going well so, yeah, on track.”

Hazlewood had missed the recently-concluded Ashes series triumph against England due to injury. The Australian bowler was initially ruled out of the first two Tests of the series with a hamstring strain but ended up missing the entire series due to Achilles soreness during rehab.

"Sometimes, when one thing goes and the other thing resurfaces. But it (the ankle) was probably another thing I'd been just managing over the last few years, and then it just creeps up,” he said.

“I guess when you start back up, sometimes your body doesn't like that stopping and getting it going again. So probably not as much of a dive into these two little niggles,” Hazlewood added.

The 35-year-old pacer was a part of the Australian team when they won the T20 World Cup in 2021.

Hazlewood was Australia’s second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament behind Adam Zampa and fifth overall with 11 scalps at an average of 15.90 and an economy of 7.29.

The Aussie pacer also played a key role in helping Royals Challengers Bengaluru win their maiden Indian Premier League title last season, as he finished as the team’s leading wicket-taker with 22 scalps from 12 games.

Hazlewood, who has taken 79 wickets in 60 T20Is and is 11th in the ICC rankings for bowlers in the format, also shared how he plans to manage his workload to avoid lengthy spells on the treatment table in the future.

"But we're still working on implementing training a different way a little bit. My gym and everything is still mostly the same, but I think purely from a bowling workload, leading into the next red-ball game, do as much as we can in terms of just dicing it up a little bit differently,” the pacer said.

“Potentially bowling two or three days in a row and then having four or five days off and then doing that again, rather than Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday," Hazlewood added.

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