Josh Hazlewood believes Australia will need to rotate its fast bowlers during a packed Test schedule over the next 18 months.
Australia begin the run with a two Test home series against Bangladesh next month. They will then tour South Africa, India and England before hosting New Zealand in a four Test series.
If Australia reach another World Test Championship final, they could play as many as 21 Tests during that period.
Speaking before the Bangladesh series, Hazlewood said his only focus is the opening Test.
“I’m probably looking at it as Test one of one,” Hazlewood said.
“I think every time you look ahead in sport, it can bite you pretty quickly.”
“So I’ve always done that. I’ve looked at literally day in, day out.”
“Everything else is a long way away. I’m just taking it as it comes.”
Hazlewood missed Australia’s home Ashes series because of injury. He said the longer build up to the Bangladesh Tests has helped him prepare better.
“I feel like I’ve still played a fair bit of cricket. I’ve probably just missed the ones at home in the last few years,” he said.
“We’ve got some nice lead in this time.”
“We’ve got Test matches abroad leading in, so it’s hopefully hit the ground running again in Australia, but a lot of cricket to go before then.”
Hazlewood admitted it would be difficult for any fast bowler to play every Test over the next year and a half.
“I don’t think there’ll be any bowler who plays every Test.”
“There’ll definitely be periods there where a bowler’s cooked, or two bowlers are cooked.”
He added that Australia’s preparation has focused only on Test cricket. The bowlers have been able to build their workloads without the interruptions of white ball matches.
“This has been sort of tailor made for a Test match, which I think should work out well,” Hazlewood said.
“It’s been trying to replicate a day in the field of Test cricket really. It’s bowling multiple spells in a day, it’s bowling back to back days.”
Hazlewood also welcomed the competition from Scott Boland. Instead of seeing him as a rival, he hopes they can play together more often.
“I’d love to play more with Scotty,” Hazlewood said.
“Every time he’s come in, he’s done unbelievably well. His career just keeps getting better and better the older he gets.”
“I think there’s enough opportunities in the next 12 months, 18 months for us to play a lot of cricket, hopefully together.”
Hazlewood also praised Australia’s fast bowling depth. He said Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett would also have important roles to play.
“I think we’ll have to lean on all six at some point in the next sort of 18 months.”
“It’s very important. I think it speaks for itself what happened last year.”
“Patty played one Test, I played none, and Ness and Doggy jumped in when they needed, and we won the series.”
Looking ahead, Hazlewood said Australia still have big goals to achieve.
“The big series are obviously England and India,” he said.
“South Africa’s another one. I haven’t won in South Africa either.”
“So there’s three that are coming up where we’ve got a few boxes to tick off there from this whole playing group.”
