He joins teammates Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc in the Test-300 club. They are the only Test attack in history to play together after taking 300 wickets each.
“You don’t really think about those kind of milestones when you’re playing,” Hazlewood told Kayo Sports after his 300th wicket. “I think you’ll probably eventually look back.
“But I think just to see the other names out there, and I’m playing with three of them, so yeah, it’s cool.”
Hazlewood, 35, started the Test five wickets shy of 300 having played just six of the last 14 Tests in Australia and none in the last 12 months due to injury. There was debate at the selection table as to whether he would be preferred for the opening Test over Scott Boland.
But he showed his class while the rest of the Australian bowlers struggled to break the resolve of the Bangladesh batsmen on a good batting surface.
Hazlewood later admitted it had been hard work in his first long game since his injury in the Sheffield Shield just before last season’s Ashes.
“I’m still standing, that’s good,” he said, smiling. “It’s a very tough job. The more matches you play in a row, you kind of get better at those longer spells, spending more time in the dirt. Maybe I was lacking a little bit of the bowling power, I think, which I felt at the end of yesterday. But I felt like I recovered well and got the pace back today.”
“Obviously people don’t see that, we’ve done a lot of work in the last four or five weeks to get some mileage in the legs, which I think has probably helped us.”
Hazlewood’s opening catch on day one was dropped by Lyon which proved costly as Tanzid Hasan went on to make 101 after getting the reprieve at 0. It broke a key partnership between Tanzid and Mominul Haque on the second morning when the latter was caught behind trying to drive it up the stretch.
He returned again to hit with the second new ball, removing Najm Hussein Shanto in the 84th minute with beauty from around the wicket. When Australia fell behind in the heat on day three, he broke Hasan Mahmoud’s stubborn resistance, trapping him lbw after another lbw decision over Mahdi Miraz Hasan was overturned on review earlier in the spell.
The extra bounce counted again for Taijul Islam as Cameron Green grabbed the lead in the gully before coming back after lunch on the third day to take fifth and reach 300 in the 26th over with Mehidi close behind trying to drive at the top.
He took his fourth Test with six wickets, and his first in nine years, when Ebadat Hossain was caught behind to end the innings.
“They stuck in there strong,” Hazlewood said. “Yes, it’s very hard work on that track. We probably stuck to it, and didn’t let the runs flow too quickly at the end. Bangladesh held on there good and strong, and it was difficult to get wickets there, so it was a good effort.”
Alex Malcolm is Associate Editor at Cricinfo
