ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Overlooked Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood says he is trying to 'stay away' from tournament

London: Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood on Tuesday said he is trying to stay away from the ongoing Cricket World Cup as much as he can.

The pacer was not included in Australia’s 15-member squad for the World Cup. Now he will be departing with the Australia ‘A’ squad to take part in the one-day and four-day matches ahead of the upcoming Ashes.

“I haven’t watched too much, to be honest. I’ve seen the scores but I’m trying to stay away from it as much as I can. It’s pretty tough,” ESPNCricinfo quoted Hazlewood as saying.

“It will be harder to avoid when I get over there but it’s not been too bad in Australia, you’ve got the footy on all the time and it doesn’t start until late so you can avoid it but when I get to England it might be a bit different,” he added.

The 28-year-old bowler has scalped 72 wickets in the ODI format at an average of 25.15 and he was a key member of the World Cup-winning squad in 2015.

Hazelwood was injured when the squad was named for the World Cup. The bowler acknowledged that the time frame was indeed very tight but he also said that he would have been ready for the World Cup.

“There are a few different opinions on that but I was always in the place where I was going to play one of the warm-up games in England, against Sri Lanka or England. That was always the goal, building up the workload for that game but, yeah, it was pretty tight and a big tournament to go into with not much cricket and that’s how the selectors saw it,” Hazelwood said.

“I was always confident of playing the role but the focus is now on the Ashes, this Australia A tour and getting out of it what I need to to be ready. I’m just itching to play now,” he added.

In the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, Australia has so far won two matches and lost one.

Australia defeated Afghanistan and West Indies in their opening two matches but the team suffered a defeat at the hands of India in their third match.

The team will next take on Pakistan on 12 June.

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