IANS/Melbourne

Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has opted not to feature for his side Mumbai Indians in the ongoing Indian Premier League, following a heavy summer schedule and a gruelling winter ahead.
The World Cup-winning pacer, who was retained by Mumbai on a $100,000 contract for the 2015 season after being bought in 2014, was not with the Rohit Sharma-led side for their opening match of the eighth IPL season against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday night.
“Josh’s workload has changed significantly since he first began attending the IPL,” Cricket Australia General Manager of Team Performance Pat Howard was quoted as saying. “The IPL is the players’ leave period and in Josh’s case it was deemed that not playing was the best use of that time in the lead-up to a busy winter. This was agreed to with the IPL following discussions at the end of the Test Series.”
Australia play their one and only tour match in the Caribbean just days after the IPL final, before two Tests against the West Indies immediately followed by the five-Test Ashes starting in Cardiff on July 8.
The 24-year-old rose to international prominence last year, when, making his Test debut, he returned figures of 5/68 against India in the first innings of the second match.
He finished the summer as an opening bowler in Australia’s victorious World Cup campaign edging past speedster Pat Cummins.

Regrouped KXIP all set for new season: Bailey
George Bailey, skipper of Kings XI Punjab -- the IPL 2014 season runners-up -- said his team has been training hard and aims to get off to a positive start against Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when the two sides clash here on Friday.
“It’s been a quick preparation for a lot of our guys. But the whole squad has been playing a lot of cricket. We are ready for the new season challenge. We had a very good season last year but it’s time for us to regroup and move forward and focus on this year,” Bailey was quoted as saying by iplt20.com.
Their first opposition of the season, Royals have a strong line-up led by Shane Watson. Asked about their strategy to tackle Australians James Faulkner and Steve Smith, who come into IPL riding on good form, Bailey replied: “The beauty of that is we have got a lot of Australians too and have lot of faith in each other. So we can target specific areas that we can try and exploit any weakness, if they have.”
Kings XI have their own demolition man in Glenn Maxwell. Speaking about the big-hitting batsman, Bailey said: “His role hasn’t really changed from last season. He had a fabulous season for us and that’s why he is an important player as he comes into every facet of the game. He is obviously hard for other teams to pin down, probably has a wider range of shots than anyone else in the world.”

IPL offers great learning experience, says Perera
Kings XI Punjab all-rounder Thisara Perera said the IPL was a great learning experience with lots of foreign players, captains and coaches participating in the tournament.
 “In IPL, you can see a lot of foreign players and lot of captains and lot of coaches. I think that is main thing for us, you know, we can take advice from them, and we can change our thoughts. It’s a great learning experience, “ Perera was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Perera admitted to favouring the shorter formats, but said he wanted to establish himself in Test cricket as well. “My batting style and bowling style... I really like to play Twenty20 and 50-overs. But I have played only 6 Tests. I have to play another 20-30 matches because I like to play Test matches. Normally, my batting style is, I am the big-hitter. I am always hitting, hitting, hitting,” the 26-year-old said.