'We know what’s going on inside our rooms' - Josh Hazlewood responds to Mitchell Johnson's 'IPL over Australia' flak

Australia speedster Josh Hazlewood has responded to Mitchell Johnson's scathing criticism, which came after the Baggy Greens failed to retain the World Test Championship (WTC) mace, losing the final to South Africa at Lord's Cricket Ground. The former Australian pacer accused Hazlewood of prioritising the Indian Premier League (IPL) over Test cricket.

Hazlewood played a key role in helping Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) win their inaugural IPL title. He took 22 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 17.55. However, the IPL final was played on June 3, and the WTC final started from June 11. So, Hazlewood didn't have much time to get re-accustomed to the red-ball format. The right-arm pacer took one wicket in each innings against the Proteas and didn't look anywhere near his lethal best.

“We’ve seen concerns about Hazlewood’s fitness in recent years, and his decision to prioritise returning to the delayed Indian Premier League over his national team preparations raised eyebrows,” Johnson had written in The West Australian.

Hazlewood responded to this accusation by explaining why playing in the IPL was the best possible preparation that he could have asked for in the lead-up to this year's most important fixture in red-ball cricket.

“I haven’t seen any of that, to be honest. We know what’s going on inside our rooms. It seemed far and away the best place to get ready for any type of cricket that was coming up. The weather was definitely a factor as well. Just getting over there and playing intense competition like that, it’s hard to replicate in training," Hazlewood told The Sydney Morning Herald when asked about Johnson’s column.

“Sydney, it was raining and I had literally nowhere to bowl. I got to Brisbane for three or four days and it was very wet. We were lucky to get on. I just thought the best place to bowl was India. We were still in the competition, we were going to play semis, and I was going to be there for 10 days. I think it was comfortably the best option,” the fast bowler concluded.