- June 3, 2025
Let’s be honest here—RCB’s fan base has suffered more delinquent outcomes than even your favorite soap opera character. But 2025? It feels different. While most people (and fairly so) have been glued to the screen watching Virat Kohli put on a clinic with the bat, the other end has had a different kind of monster brewing—Josh Hazlewood. The tall Aussie has been RCB’s bowling compass—an anchor for RCB through every predicament of an innings. And he doesn’t yell, or flex. He allows the ball to do all the talking (and, boy, has it been loud this year.)
Phase One: Powerplay Professor
The first six overs can make or break a T20 innings, and Hazlewood has made it his classroom. Among 21 bowlers who have bowled 15 or more powerplay overs this season, Hazlewood ranks 1 in nearly every key metric – economy, average, balls per wicket, and dot balls percentage. That’s not just domination – it’s dictatorship. His average in this phase isn’t only good, it’s 50% better than the next best. That’s like scoring a century while everyone else struggles to make 50s.
The secret? A metronomic level of accuracy and a pitch map that could double as a sniper’s sight. Batters are left poking in the dark whether it swings away, or just maintains the line, RCB’s early-season breakthroughs, essential to their playoffs push, owed much to this early-game wrecking ball in Hazlewood’s hand.
Phase Two: Mid-Over Menace
And then we come to the middle overs, where most bowlers disappear into the background, no longer a threat of taking wickets and becoming containment bowlers instead of taking the opportunity from what could easily be a true wicket-taking period of the game. But not Hazlewood. Sure, it says he’s going at 9.8 RPO, which can look meh at face value. But look deeper, and among 36 bowlers with 5+ wickets in the overs of 7-16, Hazlewood has the best balls-per-wicket numbers. What does that even mean? He is taking wickets more consistently than anyone!
This stage is designed for separating partnerships, and Hazlewood’s success has accordingly included RCB being able to do that. His economy is slightly costly, but with his wicket-taking ability, he’s done a solid job for RCB in the middle phase: you could say he’s the midfield maestro. With subtle changes in pace and subsequently those hard back-of-a-length deliveries, Hazlewood is adept at inducing false shots better than a magician performing sleight-of-hand tricks.
Phase Three: Death Over Dominator
During a colorful sky, pressure at its highest, sixes raining down everywhere, most bowlers fold or put their hands up. Hazlewood just goes back to basics – hard length, into the pitch, making it feel like batters are trying to play table tennis with a bowling ball. Of the 22 bowlers with 50+ balls bowled at the death, only Bumrah and Boult have a better economy. High-class company.
What sets Hazlewood apart from his peers is his consistency. Almost 80% of his balls this season have been either from length, back of a length, or short, and Hazlewood’s height a bouncy delivery becomes part of his arsenal rather than just a by-product of his bowling. Of the 18 wickets he has taken from that delivery zone, only Prasidh Krishna has a greater number of balls delivered from that delivery zone than Hazlewood has. In summary, Hazlewood performed better than anybody else could have at sticking to a simple plan.
With the prospect of winning a seventh trophy and possibly ending RCB’s 18-year title drought, one must wonder: Is Josh Hazlewood the best IPL impact bowler we’ve never acknowledged enough? What do you think?
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