'We've got six great quicks and that keeps you on your toes' – Hazlewood

Playing in their first international together as Australia's front-line fast bowlers, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and James Pattinson combined to bundle England out for 67 on Friday, August 23. Hazlewood, with five wickets, was the hero of the day. Having been left out of the first Test before coming back strongly, he knew that with the likes of Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle and Michael Neser running drinks and waiting on the sidelines, competition for places was high and nothing less than the best would do.

"The way the series is set out, we've got six great quicks here and I think that keeps you on your toes as much as anything," Hazlewood explained after the day's play. "On days like today, if you bowl poorly, it might be your last game of the series, that's how good the quicks are on the bench.

"When you look over, or if they're running out a towel or a drink to you at fine leg, it's Mitch Starc or it's Peter Siddle. And you're like 'these guys should be playing', so it certainly keeps you on your toes and that's a good thing.

"At times (in the past) you might get a little bit comfortable or relaxed that nobody's really knocking the door down," he explained. "But when they're right here training every day, putting pressure on you every day, it adds that extra element."

The pacer revealed that their plan had been to starve the England batsmen of runs. The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 champions have struggled to make the switch to Test cricket this series, and their impatience where a defensive game was necessary has proved costly.

"They're all great one day cricketers, some are great Test cricketers, so I think they love to feel bat on ball, especially through that middle order," Hazlewood said of the England batsmen. "If we can dry up the runs and force a mistake, which we saw a couple today, then that's fantastic."

"The runs stayed pretty stagnant for a lot of the time and we just kept building pressure and taking the wicket here and there. A bit of luck went our way and it just felt like it was our day. We certainly bowled well."