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
24/06/2024
ICC24
Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet
Category
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SportsTranscript
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.