How good has Josh Hazlewood been in IPL 2022?

The Royal Challengers Bangalore are on the brink of completion of their group stage fixtures with two contests remaining that would witness them going toe-to-toe against the Punjab Kings and the Gujarat Titans. Even though the drama is far from over as the main hustle for the top four has just begun, one of the main architects of success for the ongoing season, Josh Hazlewood, has flown under the radar.

Bought at a modest price of INR 7.74 crore, the vanguard of Australia’s express bowling triptych, Josh Hazlewood has left an indelible mark ever since his arrival. Nicknamed the Bendemeer Bullet, Josh is not one of those guys who loves to be in the light or emotes much on the field. He is the silent assassin who would arrive at the party, crash it to amplifying magnitudes, imbibe a pint of fresh air, and then ebb away to darkness.

With all the numbers up for grabs, he is still to make it to the list of the leading bowlers as his wicket tally isn’t as extraordinary as it should be. In fact, going by the numbers, he is in the third position of the list for RCB with 13 wickets to his name at a strike rate of 14.0. However, the impact that he has had on the fabric of the team has been absolutely titanic.

The lanky fast bowler has bowled in patches in the powerplay and the death overs. Both these departments need the best of bowlers to contain the run flow, considering the fielding restrictions in the first six and the natural urges of the batters to go big in the final four. An inch of a deviation from your line and you would be banged to the stands.

Despite not getting the numbers to favor him, this is one job that Hazlewood has carried with distinction. He has banged the deck hard at 140 plus clicks and hit the good length quite frequently, attacking the stumps, which has forced the batters to resort to keeping their bats low instead of some insane swinging. When you bowl tight, no matter how good of a batter is at the other end, you will be receiving the respect you deserve.

The first few games saw RCB leaking runs like a deluge through a shattered dam in the death overs and now the arrival of Hazlewood has strangled the run-flow real hard. Ideally, what seemed like 45-50 runs in the last 4-5 overs for the RCB bowlers have now come down to somewhere between 30-35.

More importantly, the focus that Hazlewood has shown in the ongoing edition of the tournament to relentlessly maintain the line of the deliveries has almost forced the batters to stick to their places and play their strokes instead of going wild. Well, Marcus Stoinis tried and his timbre went downtown in the very next moment.

Hazlewood has been a part of 8 fixtures in 2022 dishing out 30.3 overs so far that has seen him claim a maiden and pick up 13 wickets at an economy rate of 6.81. His best figures came against the mighty Lucknow Super Giants as he would claim 4 for 25 in his marauding spell. He is not someone who has consistently troubled the speed gun but his exploits have made him more of a sharpshooter with his deliveries kissing the right spots on the deck.

If we turn the clock back by a year, he claimed 11 wickets from 9 games and leaked at an unpleasant 8.37 runs per over that is usually deemed as expensive. Now, if you actually take a look at the kind of impact that this lanky Australian has had so far in 2022, you will need to understand the exact asks whenever he came to bowl.

He started his journey for RCB from their game against CSK and in the face of relentless hitting by the CSK batters, he would just concede at 8 runs per over. He would then come back with an exceptional performance against the Delhi Capitals where he would claim 3 scalps at the expense of just 28 runs. If Delhi incurred just the tip of the iceberg, Lucknow faced the complete venom as he would put a stopper in their chase with 4 wickets for just 25 runs, and that too at the face of a livid Marcus Stoinis.

Since then, barring a couple of occasions, he has continued breathing fire, eviscerating willow-men at will. He will definitely be spearheading the RCB pace attack that has a long way to go yet in 2022. With the knock-outs less than 2 games away for the Challengers, the Australian will play an instrumental role to shape the fortunes of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.