Twelve years after he became the youngest player to make his one day international debut for Australia, Josh Hazlewood has become the 28th player to lead the country in the 50-over format, and Tamworth's first Australian cricket captain.
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The Bendemeer Bullet surprised many when he strolled out to the middle of the SCG on Saturday to take the toss for Australia's second ODI against England as the stand-in captain for rested skipper Pat Cummins.
It's the first time the 31-year-old has captained a side in a professional match, let alone his country, although he has been vice-captain of both the test and ODI sides since 2018.
"It's very exciting obviously," Hazlewood replied to Fox Sports' Kath Loughnan at the toss when asked what it meant to him to lead his country on his home ground.
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Getting the nod ahead of Steve Smith, wicketkeeper Alex Carey and Travis Head, who were the speculated choices to replace Cummins, Hazlewood said he was told of the honour with "a nice little 'you're captain next game'," from his fellow quick.
"It's sort of a wider leadership group so just standing in for this game," he said.
One of two changes to the Australian side as they looked to make it two-from-two, after winning the toss, Hazlewood elected to bat first.
"We just think this wicket maybe might deteriorate throughout the game," he said.
"There's still quite a nice coverage of grass on it but there's a few cracks so we'll see how we go."
