The rise and rise of Josh Hazlewood

There are things you immediately notice about Josh Hazlewood, like the fact that he is nearly two metres tall, or that he is a damn fine bowler in all formats. Then there are things you don't see unless you look for them, like the fact that he is the only member of Australia's team without a Twitter account. Such a detail may seem irrelevant; to Hazlewood, irrelevant would be wasting time on social media when there's a job to be done.

And what a job he does. Two years ago this week, Hazlewood made his Test debut at the Gabba and began with a five-wicket bag. No Australian has taken more Test wickets during that time than Hazlewood's 94 at 25.61, and of all comers only R Ashwin and Stuart Broad have bettered his tally. He is fifth on the ICC's Test bowling rankings, higher than either Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon have ever risen in their careers.

Yet for all his success, Hazlewood is not viewed in the rock-star way of Starc, who bowls the "wow" balls that swing in and rattle stumps, set bails flying and commentators screaming. But Hazlewood's value is clear to Australia's team management, hence his place in the team leadership group alongside Starc and David Warner, the trio who - along with input from captain Steven Smith - imposed a fine on Glenn Maxwell during the recent ODI series.

"Over the last six to twelve months I've found that I've sort of been the mainstay, I guess, in the team and there have been faces coming in and out," Hazlewood said at the Gabba on Tuesday, in the lead-up to the first Test against Pakistan. "You just take that senior role upon yourself and I'm really enjoying it at the moment.

"We're the guys who have been there for the last few years in the Test matches. We're the core of the group I think at the moment, and especially with Davey there as well, the vice-captain, he's a great leader among the group as well. To have a couple of bowlers in there is also good."

It remains unusual for pacemen to be made captain at the elite levels of Australian cricket, but neither is the lazy stereotype of the "dumb" fast bowler often heard these days. In the recent Tests against South Africa, Hazlewood gave a fine demonstration in fast-bowing smarts by dismissing Hashim Amla, one of world cricket's best batsmen, in every innings.

"I had a little chat to him after the series was finished as well, just about different things he'd worked on to try and counteract, but obviously didn't work," Hazlewood said. "He's one person who does watch a lot of footage and you could see the changes there in that last Test that he made, just dragged a bit wider and same result.

"I could just see that he changed, he set up a little bit differently. He was getting further across outside off, wanting me to follow him and target the stumps a bit more and then he's a class player off his pads. I just took it a little bit wider and took the stumps out of the equation. He probably could have left a lot more, which he did do early on, but then he started playing a couple through impatience, I guess, and I got the result."

If you can outdo Amla on patience, you deserve all the credit in the world. Hazlewood believes a similar approach will serve him well against Pakistan's batsmen in this series. Although he is yet to play a Test against Pakistan and is not the kind of bowler to study hours of batting footage, Hazlewood is confident he will quickly discover what works.

"I take a lot from the first couple of balls I bowl to each batsman," Hazlewood said. "I see a lot more in those couple of balls than watching footage."

That is the mark of a natural. Elite sport's best performers are those who combine quick assessment of an opponent's weaknesses with the skills to exploit them. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were masters of observing and setting up a batsman. Hazlewood has often been compared to McGrath, another tall bowler from country New South Wales with a metronomic ability to wear batsmen down.

McGrath reached the 100-wicket milestone in his 23rd Test at the age of 26; should Hazlewood get there at the Gabba this week, he will do so in his 24th Test, three weeks shy of his 26th birthday. Since his debut at this ground in 2014, Hazlewood has missed only one Test, the final match of the 2015 Ashes at The Oval. His durability is impressive at a time when Australia struggle to keep fast men fit.

And whereas 46.5% of Starc's wickets have been bowled or lbw, a sign of how much he attacks the stumps, Hazlewood's figure is 32.9%. McGrath's, by comparison, was 33.5%. Hazlewood, like McGrath, is content to plug away at the top of off and wait for an edge.

"We have our bowlers' meetings and 99% of the time it comes back to bowling the top of off with the occasional bouncer," Hazlewood said. "There's probably one player in each team where that's not plan A, but often the case is it comes back to that."

Still, it takes patience for a fast bowler to avoid frustration and stick to such a plan. Patience and the ability to block out distractions. Hazlewood possesses those traits in abundance. They have served him well in two years as a Test cricketer. There is every reason to think they will do so for another decade.

Performance, intelligence, patience, focus and fitness - Hazlewood ticks more boxes than a market researcher. No wonder this team views him as a leader.