Josh Hazlewood to not rest easy on Hashim Amla

Australia quick Josh Hazlewood had an impressive outing ever since his foray in international cricket. And ahead of Australia’s SouthAfrica tour, the speedster is keen to continue holding the upper hand over Proteas batsman Hashim Amla when the sides begin their four-Test series in Durban on Thursday.

Hazlewood has made Amla his bunny, dismissing the 113-Test veteran five times in five innings in the three-Test series in November 2016, that South Africa won 2-1. Now it’s time for the Hazlewood-Amla rivalry to reignite, this time in the rainbow nation. Amla, currently seventh in the world Test batting rankings, enters the series with three-half centuries in his past four Test knocks under his belt.

Hazlewood, on the other hand, comes on the back of some fine performances. The 27-year-old enjoyed a scintillating Ashes series where he captured 21 English wickets and was Australia‘s most reliable bowler as the hosts whitewashed the Lions 4-0.

Speaking to Cricket Australia website (cricket.com.au), Hazlewood said, “I had some good success against him in Australia and hopefully with these conditions pretty similar to those, I can get on top of him early and put that pressure back on him.”

He added, “It’s a great feeling having the wood on a batsman and I think the batter feels that as well. Through the series, they know that that bowler is always going to come straight on when they come out to bat and it’s a bit of extra pressure, you just know you’ve got the wood on them.”

AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis returns to the squad

South African batting stalwarts AB De Villiers and Faf du Plessis will be returning in the red-ball series after rehabbing from their respective injuries.

De Villiers missed the first three ODIs against India with a finger injury which he incurred during the Test series. However, the 34-year-old was again ruled out of the T20 leg after sustaining a serious injury to his left knee which worsened further while playing in the final ODI fixture.

The Proteas skipper, on the other hand, incurred a finger injury during the one-dayers and was subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the series.