Josh Hazlewood targeting England’s shaky top order in bid for Ashes supremacy

England’s inexperienced and out of form top order has Australian quick Josh Hazlewood licking his lips, and determined to turn up the pressure from ball one when the Ashes start this week.

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Josh Hazlewood has put a target on the unsettled English top order and wants Australia’s amped up bowling attack to turn the pressure dial up to 11 when the Ashes begins on Thursday.

English selectors have punted on a top three of Jason Roy, Rory Burns and Joe Denly who boast just 534 Test runs between them in their 11 combined matches, and just four half-centuries.

Burns, the most experienced of them, was twice out for six to Ireland’s medium pacers last week in his seventh Test, and will have to combat the likes of Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, and potentially James Pattinson at Edgbaston.

Josh Hazlewood can’t wait to get after England’s vulnerable top order at Edgbaston.

Pace spearhead Hazlewood said the Aussie bowlers would be doing everything they could to keep that trio firmly in the home town spotlight.

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“Absolutely, their top order is under a little bit of pressure probably, with just the fact they haven’t played that much Test cricket,” Hazlewood said.

“The more we can put them under pressure early and get stuck into that middle order when the ball is nice and hard and new, that’s great.

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“I think you’re always feeling the pressure in Test cricket, maybe a little more at home.

“I guess there is just more media around at home and bigger crowds. But you’re always feeling the pressure I think.”

Hazlewood said the fast bowlers, with the Test line-up yet to be confirmed, could take a lesson from spinner Nathan Lyon in getting on top of the English batsmen.

Lyon dismissed Moeen Ali a record seven times from nine attempts in Australia 18 months ago, including four times LBW, and had total control over the left-hander.

“If you can really build the pressure on one guy and get him early in the first Test especially, you can sort of create that doubt in that mind and get the upper hand and just keep driving that in as the series goes on,” he said.

“This is the only team we play in a five-Test series so it’s a little bit different than others, but definitely that’s key.”

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Hazelwood said the five-fast bowlers in the Aussie squad, with Mitch Starc and Peter Siddle also in the 17-man group, were ready to be rotated through the five-Test series to ensure the team had the best possible attack in every match.

“I guess just with how tight the scheduling is, it’s probably the tightest we’ve seen the five-Test series and a couple of tour games thrown in there as well ... I think the guys are happy to play it by ear a little bit, obviously depending on how much we bowl per Test,” he said.

“You can’t look too far ahead I think. You can map certain things out if things happen but you’ve got to play it by ear I think with Test cricket.

“You might get away with a Test with 30 overs under your belt which is fine. It’s when it goes up to 45 to 50 that you start to reassess things and look at different options.

“So more than happy to rotate or conditions based picking those bowlers, we’ll see how we go.”

Originally published as Josh Hazlewood targeting England’s shaky top order in bid for Ashes supremacy