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Australia aiming to open Ashes scars by playing mind games with Joe Root, says Josh Hazlewood

Low point: Australia’s Nathan Lyon celebrates as Joe Root is run out by Mitchell Johnson for 15 at Melbourne in the second innings of the fourth Test of the 2013/14 Ashes: Getty Images
Low point: Australia’s Nathan Lyon celebrates as Joe Root is run out by Mitchell Johnson for 15 at Melbourne in the second innings of the fourth Test of the 2013/14 Ashes: Getty Images

Josh Hazlewood has revealed that Australia will try to get inside the head of England ­captain Joe Root by reminding him of his failure on the last Ashes tour.

Root was dropped for the final Test of the 2013-14 series in Sydney after a poor run of form during his debut tour of Australia that ended with England whitewashed 5-0.

The Yorkshireman recently described that moment as “rock bottom” and has used the anger of being left out of the team to fire a phenomenal run of form with him averageing 59.83 in Test cricket since.

However, Hazlewood, who will form a formidable Australian pace attack alongside Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins when the latest series starts at the Gabba on Thursday, believes the hosts can exploit Root’s pain over what happened last time by targeting him whenever he comes out to bat. They will do so as part of a wider campaign to undermine those England players who were part of the 2013-14 campaign

“We’ll certainly bring it up,” said Hazlewood. “He’s obviously a different player now and he’s been a fantastic player for the past couple of years or longer, but we will bring that up and, hopefully, open a few scars of the guys who did tour here last time. They had a tough time of it. We only have three guys who are backing up from that series — Steve Smith, David Warner and Nathan Lyon — so those guys will remind them of what happened.

“Once we go on to that field it’s all-out attack. A few guys like a chirp so I think we’ll see that throughout the series at different times.

“But it’s up to us quicks to try to put those wickets on the board and knock them over cheaply to start us off and get that ball rolling in the same direction.”

Warner, who famously swung a punch at Root in Birmingham’s Walkabout bar during the 2013 Champions Trophy tournament, recently gave a taste of what is to come when he described the Ashes as “war” and stated that a “hatred” of England’s players would motivate him during this upcoming series.

That appeared out of character for a man whose lifestyle changes in recent years have seen him nicknamed The Reverend by his team-mates.

Raring to go: Josh Hazlewood (Getty Images)
Raring to go: Josh Hazlewood (Getty Images)

Hazlewood, though, indicated that the aggressive opener will again take up the role of being Australia’s sledger in chief. “He might switch back this series, you never know,” he said. “We’ll see how he goes. I think he’s still the chirpiest, especially with this series. I think he’ll have a word or two here and there, so it will be interesting to see what happens.”

While Starc and Cummins will aim to bombard England’s batsmen with outright pace, Hazlewood, who has 118 Test wickets at an average of 25, is a more skilled bowler who has been compared to his fellow New South Walesian Glenn McGrath.

Yet the 26-year-old is in no mood to shy away from the parallels with arguably Australia’s greatest seam bowler, who took 563 wickets during a stellar 14-year Test career.

“I’ve been compared to him since I started and it’s quite a good one if you’re going to be compared to anyone,” he said.

Hazlewood believes as well as getting on top of Root, doing the same to former captain Alastair Cook, who hit 766 runs during England’s successful 2010-11 Ashes series in Australia, will also be critical for the hosts.

“I think Cook’s always the key,” he said. “He probably blunts the attack more than anything and with four bowlers he’s key for trying to bring us back for spell after spell to tire us out.

“But you look at the senior guys — I think Root and Jonny Bairstow, with the pace they score at, can change a game pretty quickly, similar to Warner. So they’re the guys that we need to start well against.”

Of England’s top seven only Cook, Root and Bairstow have played an Ashes Test in Australia, and there are three batsmen — Mark Stoneman, James Vince and Dawid Malan — who share just 15 Test appearances between them.

It’s a weakness Hazlewood is eager to exploit. “Yep, absolutely,” he said. “They’re obviously inexperienced and I think if we can get those senior guys out — Cook and Root — it just adds to the pressure for those inexperienced guys. And the earlier we can get them in against the relatively new ball, the better. So they’re key players for us.”

Hazlewood, who took 16 wickets during his debut Ashes series in England two years ago, is also looking forward to seeing his colleague Starc let loose on the tourists’ lower order batsmen.

Starc, who took two hat-tricks during his last Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales, is nicknamed The Mop by his team-mates for his ability to finish off the tail.

“After a double hat-trick in the last Sheffield Shield game he wraps it up pretty quickly,” says Hazlewood.

“England’s lower to middle order likes to hang around and get the team out of trouble so that could be a key area for us — The Mop coming on and cleaning it up.”