IPL 2023: Josh Hazlewood will likely miss opening 7 fixtures for RCB

Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood has yet to recover from his Achilles (heel) problem, so he missed the four-Test series in India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which the hosts won 2-1. While he was expected to get fit by the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL), his recovery has been slower than usual, and it will take longer to gain match fitness.

As a result, Hazlewood is all set to miss out on the opening seven encounters for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). According to PTI, he will arrive in India by April 14 and is expected to be wholly fit by the third week of the month. He has not received medical clearance from Cricket Australia (CA) before his departure to India.

ALSO READ: IPL 2023: 'MS DHONI WILL USE BEN STOKES REALLY WELL' - AJINKYA RAHANE

Hazlewood told The Age about his fitness situation: "Everything is ticking along according to plan, so I'll be heading over on the 14th [of April], depending on how the next two weeks go. I probably won't be quite ready to go right then, but [after] another week in India to touch things up skills-wise, I should be ready to go."

However, Hazlewood is confident in preparing for The Ashes through IPL, as he phrased, "You don't need a lot of workload for T20 [Twenty20]. It's more just ticking off those boxes of getting up to speed and pushing back in the run-up. I will probably only need to do one or two sessions at full pace, and then, I'm good to play."

ALSO READ: IPL 2023, GT vs CSK: Dhoni vs Hardik to keep fans engaged as both teams stew on 'Impact Players'

"T20 is a lot different to Test and even one-day cricket. You only need 20 balls at full pace, and that's pretty close to a game, which is a good thing. It's a niggly one, the Achilles tendon. It's a slow process, but it thrives on a bit of work, and I'd have to be bowling to prepare for the Ashes, so it may as well be in a game of cricket," concluded Hazlewood.