Josh Hazlewood became the ninth Australian to take 300 Test wickets on Day 3 of the first Test against Bangladesh in Darwin, completing the milestone with a six-wicket haul on his return after 13 months out of Test cricket.
Hazlewood reached 300 when Mehidy Hasan Miraz edged behind in the 26th over of Bangladesh’s first innings at Marrara Stadium on August 15. He held the ball aloft, then dismissed Ebadot Hossain caught behind to finish with 6/89 and wrap up the innings at 426.
It was his 14th five-wicket haul in Tests and his fourth six-wicket haul. The last time he took six in an innings was nine years ago.
“The boring stuff that everyone always says is he hits a really good area, time and time again he’s got bounce. But I think he’s changed the way he’s bowled a little bit, he’s now got a wobble seam he uses quite a bit, he’s really good with reverse swing. When we play overseas he finds a way to take wickets in pretty much whatever conditions, so he’s probably a bit more adaptable than he gets credit for. And again for a big guy he can bowl 20 overs in a day no worries, which is rare in world cricket when you look around. And he’s been doing it for over a decade now.”
Pat Cummins, cricket.com.au video, August 15, 2026
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Hazlewood’s six dismissals in the innings were Mominul Haque, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Hasan Mahmud, Taijul Islam, and Ebadot Hossain. He was the most effective bowler on a surface where Australia’s other quicks struggled to make regular inroads. Bangladesh batted 138 overs in their first innings, the most by any overseas side in Australia in the last seven years.
Nathan Lyon dropped Tanzid Hasan off Hazlewood’s first over when Tanzid was on zero. Tanzid went on to score 101. On a different day, Hazlewood could have started his march to 300 in the first hour.
Hazlewood now joins teammates Lyon, Cummins, and Mitchell Starc in the 300-wicket club. No Test attack in history has featured four bowlers who have all played together after each crossing 300. It is a record that may never be repeated, because it requires four elite bowlers to peak in the same era, stay fit across overlapping careers, and remain in the same team long enough to all pass the mark.
Among Australia’s nine bowlers to reach 300 Test wickets, only Glenn McGrath (21.64), Cummins (22.21), and Dennis Lillee (23.92) have better bowling averages than Hazlewood’s 24.02. He sits ahead of Brett Lee (30.81) and Mitchell Johnson (28.40), two bowlers who relied more on raw pace. Hazlewood’s average tells a different story. It belongs to a bowler who has built his career on precision, not speed.
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What Cummins said about Hazlewood adding a wobble seam and improving his reverse swing is the detail that separates this milestone from a routine number. Most fast bowlers at 35 lose pace and compensate by bowling slower. They add cutters. They drop their run-up. Hazlewood has done the opposite. He has added weapons while maintaining everything that made him dangerous in the first place.
A wobble seam is not easy to control at 140km/h. It requires the bowler to release the ball with the seam deliberately scrambled, so it moves unpredictably off the surface. Doing this consistently while still hitting good areas over after over takes years of practice and a level of skill that most fast bowlers never develop. The fact that Hazlewood has added this to his game in his mid-thirties, after a career already built on accuracy, shows a bowler who refuses to stop evolving. That is why he reached 300 at 35 after a year on the sidelines, and it is why he remains the most complete fast bowler in Australian cricket.
Hazlewood’s Road Back From 13 Months on the Sidelines
Hazlewood’s last Test before Darwin was against the West Indies in July 2025. A hamstring tear during a Sheffield Shield match in November 2025 ruled him out of the start of the Ashes. Then an Achilles flare-up during rehab ended any hope of returning for the series. He missed the entire Ashes, the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, and played only six of Australia’s last 14 Tests.
Before the Bangladesh series, Hazlewood spent weeks at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, bowling intensive simulations designed to replicate Test match workloads.
“You don’t really think about those sort of milestones when you’re playing. I guess it’s probably something you look back on at the end. But I guess just to see the other names there, and I’m playing with three of them, so yeah, it’s pretty cool.”
Josh Hazlewood, Kayo Sports interview, August 15, 2026
The understatement is typical of Hazlewood. He reached 300 Test wickets with a six-wicket haul on his comeback from a year-long injury absence, and called it “pretty cool.” The milestone puts him alongside Warne, McGrath, Lillee, Lyon, Cummins, Starc, Johnson, and Lee. The manner in which he reached it, on a flat Darwin surface where nobody else could consistently break through, tells you everything about the bowler he has become.
Sources:
IANS, August 15, 2026
Also Read:
- Hazlewood Rested for Ashes, McDonald Told Him Directly
- Finch on Hazlewood, Boland, and Smith’s Place in Australian Team
- Smith Ties Root’s Test Catch Record
- Smith Snicko No Spike: Darwin DRS Controversy Against Mahmud
- Shanto on Respect for Bangladesh Ahead of Australia Test
- Kemar Roach Reaches 300 Test Wickets: The Craft Behind the Milestone
- Mitchell Starc on Letting Things Go and His Career
