THE AUSTRALIAN REPORT CARD IN THE IPL 2025 EXAMINATION

Starc and Hazlewood have carried the hopes of the respective franchises; it is noteworthy that both of them have struck to their strengths while yielding the desired results; David at the death for RCB leads the pack among the willow-wielders from Down Under

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The precision-personified Josh Hazlewood has been the standout Australian performer of this IPL season. The 'Hazlegod' nickname, conferred on by RCB fans, feels earned.

In stark contrast, Glenn Maxwell has been drastically underwhelming considering his T20 form before the IPL; Jake Fraser-McGurk has regressed from explosive to ineffective; Travis Head, though he's still contributing, hasn't dominated pace like last season and is clearly below his blistering 2024 standards.

From the best to the worst, here's a performance breakdown of the regularly-featured key Australian players in this IPL season.

Josh Hazlewood (18 wkts): At the MRF Pace Foundation ground here in March, Glenn McGrath, asked to pick pacers he thought would do well this season, picked Josh Hazlewood - besides, of course, Jasprit Bumrah (no-brainer) - for their "best control."

McGrath added: “You don’t have to bowl a completely different ball every ball, but as long as you have that execution...”

How well has Hazlewood executed for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru this season! To begin with, a honed skill and a physical attribute have helped him shine. Nothing fancy.

Honed skill: Consistently bowling in the channel outside off.

Physical attribute: 1.96 m tall = high release point = steep bounce.

In the past year (until the first week of April), almost half of Hazlewood's bowling (45 per cent) across formats has been in the channel outside off! Only Dushmantha Chameera betters him among all the seamers to have bowled at least 250 balls in that time.

RCB's pace attack had the best dismissal rate with short balls (7.5 balls per dismissal) until its reverse fixture versus Rajasthan Royals in Bengaluru. Hazlewood has significantly contributed to it.