Josh Hazlewood has taken 300 Test wickets at 24.02 and bowled more overs on Australian soil than almost any fast bowler currently active. When he says batting in Australia has fundamentally changed, there is no one better placed to make the claim.
Speaking to Channel 7 on August 31, 2026, Hazlewood put a number on the shift.
“We know the wickets are tougher than they probably have been in the past, particularly in the first 20 or 30 overs when the Kookaburra is at its newest. In Australia, it’s very tough batting, and it might be the case that 280 is a great score as opposed to when I first came into the Test team, when you needed 500 or late 400s.”
Josh Hazlewood, Channel 7, August 31, 2026
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When Hazlewood first entered the Test team, a first-innings total of 400 was par. Now he is saying 280 might be enough.
The data supports him. In the 2025-26 Sheffield Shield season, batters collectively averaged below 30. Not one of the top 10 run scorers averaged above 37, with Peter Handscomb leading the competition at 36.21.
Nine of 30 regular season Shield matches finished within three days, up from five the previous season. Australia scored under 200 in their first innings in three consecutive home season openers: 104 against India in 2024-25, 132 against England in 2025-26, and 198 against Bangladesh in August 2026.
Hazlewood is not alone in this assessment. Steve Smith said after the Darwin Test that batting at the top of the order in Australia is the toughest he has seen in his career. He described the ball seaming significantly and conditions requiring luck just to survive as an opener.
“I think it’s gone too far in the advantage of fast bowlers or seam bowling in Australia. If it goes back (towards fairer pitches), those guys that are averaging 38 maybe average 50.”
Ricky Ponting, commentary, August 2026
Ponting’s point reframes how current batsmen should be judged. If he is right, Marnus Labuschagne’s 123 runs at 15 in eight innings since the Ashes is not purely a form collapse. It is partly a conditions problem.
Cricket Australia Responds
Cricket Australia has not disputed any of this. For the 2026-27 Sheffield Shield season, CA issued a formal directive to pitch curators: if in doubt, favour the batter. CA’s chief of cricket James Allsopp instructed curators to opt for less grass coverage whenever they are debating between two settings.
CA also restructured Shield session times. The afternoon session, traditionally the best window for batting, has been extended by 15 minutes to two hours and 15 minutes. The evening session, where conditions tilt towards seamers, has been cut by the same amount.
The goal is to see more teams win the toss and choose to bat. CA is formally acknowledging that its domestic pitches have been too bowler-friendly across three consecutive summers and that the problem now affects Test selection and the development pathway.
Insider Read
Hazlewood named the first 20 to 30 overs with a new Kookaburra as the critical window. A decade ago, the Kookaburra lost its shine and seam position after 15 overs and the pitch flattened out. Now, firmer surfaces and better-maintained seams mean that window stretches past 30 overs, half a day’s cricket where top-order batsmen are surviving, not scoring.
The bowler who has thrived most in those conditions is the one telling you the equation has broken. He runs in over after over on those pitches, feels the ball grip and seam off a length, and knows the batter at the other end has nowhere to go. When he says 35 is the new 45, he is telling you what he sees from 22 yards away every time he bowls.
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