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There’s nothing extraordinary about Josh Hazlewood. He doesn’t boast the scintillating pace of Kagiso Rabada or assault stumps with hooping yorkers like Mitchell Starc.
Rabada and Starc are the kind of cricketers who produce spells which leave a lasting imprint on your memory, such is their dynamism and intimidation.
Hazlewood, meanwhile, is so consistent and so reliable that his performances tend to blend into each other.
Unlike the potent but erratic Starc, the gap between Hazlewood’s best and worst efforts are as narrow as the margin for error Quinton de Kock offers bowlers.
This was illustrated by the Aussie quick’s Test tours of Sri Lanka and England the past 18 months. In both of those series, Hazlewood was below his best. They are probably the two worst series of his career.
In England, he struggled to control the swing of the Dukes ball and was unable to maintain his trademark accuracy.
In Sri Lanka the pitches were lifeless and captain Steve Smith gave Hazlewood very few overs with the new ball.
Yet, across those two series, he still grabbed 23 wickets at 28. The fact these series are low points of his career is indicative of his wonderful consistency.
This consistency is built on a simple approach. Similar to South African Vernon Philander, Hazlewood seeks to land the ball on an in-between length just on or outside off stump.
It’s perhaps the oldest method in the textbook, but one which is only effective if you have the laser accuracy of Hazlewood or Philander.
Other bowlers can land four, maybe even five deliveries an over on this testing line and length. But Test batsmen block those out in the knowledge that the other one or two balls will be in their scoring zones.
The likes of Hazlewood and Philander offer few such relief balls and therein lies their success. Hazlewood’s dismissal of the destructive De Kock yesterday was a prime example of his subtle brilliance.
De Kock took a delivery from the off stump and flicked it nonchalantly through square leg. Rather than bowing to the unorthodox skills of the South African keeper-batsman, and changing tack, Hazlewood trusted his ability.
He landed the next delivery in exactly the same spot, except this time it was an off cutter. As the ball deviated away off the seam De Kock followed it and edged the ball through to keeper Matthew Wade.
Hazlewood long has been compared to Australian legend Glenn McGrath and this clever set-up of De Kock was reminiscent of the manner in which McGrath work over opposition batsmen.
To gauge how well 25-year-old Hazlewood is travelling at this stage of his Test career, compare his efforts to four of the leading quicks in the Test format, who were close to the same age as him when they had played 23 Tests.
Test records after 23 Tests:
Dale Steyn – 120 wickets at 22
Josh Hazlewood – 92 wickets at 25
Mitchell Starc – 88 wickets at 31
Stuart Broad – 67 wickets at 36
James Anderson – 75 wickets at 38
Starc will continue to earn the headlines as he and Hazlewood share the new ball for perhaps many years to come. But the eye-catching left armer’s success owes a lot to Hazlewood’s understated artistry.