McDermott: Injuries the nature of fast bowling

Cricket365
March 12, 2016

Departing Australia bowling coach Craig McDermott says the Aussies are doing everything to combat the number of injuries to their fast bowlers and credits seamer Josh Hazlewood for taking on an extra work load.

McDermott's four year tenure of working with the Aussie bowlers will come to an end after the upcoming World T20 in India and he has enjoyed working with the national side.

He saw Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris retire while James Pattinson is continuing to be in and out of the side with injuries.

McDermott told Cricinfo: "I really think (injuries) it's the nature of fast bowling. We're doing enough to reduce all those things.

"Having Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris retire for instance puts extra load on other guys and I take my hat off to Josh Hazlewood this year, he's played every Test match bar one in the last 13 months and done a great job.

"He just continues to improve, I'd been a little bit nervous about him for a while playing so much cricket in 12 months but he's handled that with a spell in one-day games here and there, but not a lot of rest overall.

"If we can do anything it is to get six to eight blokes fully fit all the time, which is a big wish list, you can pick and choose through a four or five-Test series who you're going to play. That can help.

"But we thought we were in pretty good position this time then Patto got injured, Nathan [Coulter-Nile] popped his shoulder and all those sorts of things really test the depth below.

"Jackson Bird's gone to New Zealand and bowled very well with the new ball and bowled very good reverse. Patto bowled very well as well, and in that series Josh bowled magnificently without the rewards he deserved."