Cricket: Aussies call for bat size restrictions

Josh Hazlewood. Photo: Getty Images
Josh Hazlewood. Photo: Getty Images
In-form Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood has backed former captain Ricky Ponting's call to limit bat sizes for Test cricket.

Ponting expects the hot topic to be raised on Monday at a World Cricket Committee meeting.

"I don't mind it (big bats) for the shorter versions of the game," Ponting said at the Australian Cricket Society's annual dinner.

"I would actually say you've got a bat you can use in Test cricket and a certain type of bat you can use in one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket.

"The short forms of the game survive on boundaries - fours and sixes - whereas the Test game is being dominated too much now by batters because the game is a bit easier for them than it was."

Hazlewood, the player of the series in the recent one-day tri series involving South Africa and the West Indies, agreed with Ponting's assessment.

"Some of those cricket bats going around the dressing sheds at the moment are unbelievably big," Hazlewood said yesterday.

"Obviously, David Warner and Usman Khawaja has got a few big ones there as well, so I'm all for it.

"One-day cricket is a little bit different. I think the crowds come to see the fours and sixes and the big hits but, in Test cricket, definitely I think he's making a pretty good point."

Hazlewood, who took 5-50 in the tri-series final against the Windies in Barbados, felt he was bowling as well as at any stage of his international career.

"The rhythm feels really good and I think the break before we went away helped to refresh and to get some strength back in the legs," Hazlewood said.

"I feel like I'm bowling really well at the moment - even those conditions (in the West Indies) didn't quite suit me."

He attributed his consistent form over the past year to a diet of continuous cricket after having numerous injury interruptions earlier in his career.

Hazlewood expects conditions in Sri Lanka, where Australia will play three Tests, five ODIs and two T20s, to be similar to those in the West Indies, with pitches on the slow side.

He read little into Sri Lanka's series of crushing defeats to England across all three formats.

"England are tough to play in England, Sri Lanka will be a different proposition in their home conditions and they are always tough to play there," he said.

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