Peter Hatzoglou - Australia's highly-rated spin talent who does it different

Peter Hatzoglou is quite the new-age wrist-spinner doing the rounds. He doesn't come from the traditional 'toss the ball up and buy wickets' formula, but it is something that he started off with. Which young Australian wouldn't when he or she would grow up admiring Shane Warne, right?

However, over time, he has remodeled himself to a style that, by his own admission, suits him naturally. A surprise addition to the Melbourne Renegades set-up ahead of the Big Bash League (BBL) in 2020-21 was the turning point in Hatzoglou's cricketing career. From a background in financial analysis, he is now a serious contender among the up-and-coming white-ball leg-spinners down under.

Hatzoglou has become a globe-trotter as well with time. Stints in The Hundred and the Abu Dhabi T10 league followed him and he will also go under the hammer at the upcoming IPL 2023 Auction on Friday, December 23.

He may not be a big turner of the cricket ball, but firing it into consistent stump-to-stump radar to tie down batters defines Hatzoglou's style of bowling.

He details this and plenty more in an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda. From playing with those he grew up watching on television, to showers of praise received from the late great Shane Warne himself. And of course, the future and what lies ahead. Hatzoglou details it all.

Excerpts from Peter Hatzoglou's exclusive chat with Sportskeeda.

Q. You’ve had two brilliant BBL campaigns, with one of them helping the Perth Scorchers lift the title last year. How much has that experience boosted your confidence at an early stage in your career?

Peter Hatzoglou: It’s been fantastic. There was always that Imposter Syndrome, I suppose, in the early days. I’ve been watching all these players on TV for years and then you are suddenly playing against them with my different style of bowling...until I’d done it and until I had a bit of success I didn’t know if I was going to stack up against the best players in the world.

Since that first season at the Melbourne Renegades, I won the championship with the Scorchers the next year, I’ve played in the Hundred with the Oval Invincibles and more recently I’ve played in the Abu Dhabi T10 with Team Abu Dhabi. It's been fantastic to have some success.

Often I think that Australia is one of the worst places for me to bowl. The wickets are fast, they don’t get much turn. Traditionally, they are not conducive to spin. So it’s great to get overseas, it’s great to get to places where conditions may be more favorable to my style of bowling. I think I’ve probably had a little bit more success because of that in different parts of the world.

Q. A gig at The Hundred and then the Abu Dhabi T10. How would you describe your experience across the two considering that they’re effectively pruned versions of slam-bang frenzy cricket and what do you make of their long-term sustenance?

Peter Hatzoglou: There’s a lot of excitement around white-ball games and all the different white-ball formats. It’s a really accessible product for those who are new to the game and those who are trying to learn the game. The whole idea behind the Hundred was to simplify the game and make it easier to understand. T10 I think is such a nice byte-sized format where new viewers and newer people to the game can really enjoy it in a way that’s more in line with modern life.

I was really fortunate, I guess I stumbled across this style of bowling that is suitable for the shorter formats of the game. It’s just been great to have some success. The Hundred - my debut was at Lord’s. It was the Oval Invincibles versus the London Spirit, the London derby.

I think there were about 35000-40000 people. It was a packed crowd at Lord's on a Saturday night. It was just a great atmosphere. I was playing against some of the best players in the world in Abu Dhabi - playing against Suresh Raina, for example. It’s been fantastic to have this experience against all these different players in global tourneys, playing against and with guys who I’ve been watching on TV since I was a kid.

Hatzoglou made his List-A debut for South Australia in March 2021 on the back of a solid debut Big Bash League season.

Q. You come across as this new-age defensive wrist-spinner who walks into the model of a T20 team in this era. How easy or hard is it to strike a balance between when to attack and buy wickets and when to stick to bowling dot deliveries?

Peter Hatzoglou: Every young Australian spinner is going to grow up looking at someone like Shane Warne and model himself le. I guess what I figured as I went progressed was that my physical attributes are probably more similar to someone like Anil Kumble. I’m tall, so naturally have a high release, and that sort of worked itself in a way that I shifted to model myself more on Anil Kumble than Shane Warne.

With T20 cricket and short-form cricket, often one of the best ways to attack is to defend really well. There’s pressure on the batters to score really quickly, so if you can stop them from getting those boundaries they’re going to take disproportionate risks to try and up the run rate and get the runs that they need to get to put a good score on the board.

If I can bowl really defensively, that then hopefully makes the batter change their approach. If I can get them to change their approach to an option that’s probably riskier for them then I guess I’m in the game with wickets.

Q. You couldn’t play too many games at the Perth Stadium last year owing to the COVID restrictions that were in force. Yet, having trained there at the venue, is there anything you look to do to adapt differently as a bowler?

Peter Hatzoglou: I think naturally I’m probably better suited to a Perth Stadium than the Marvel Stadium. I bowl fast, I bowl into the wicket. Perth Stadium has really long square boundaries and short straight boundaries.

So bowling into the wicket makes it harder to hit down the ground. You have to hit squarer where I’ve got a long boundary to utilize. The pace and the bounce - traditionally I haven’t spun the ball a huge amount in Australian conditions so the Perth Stadium and the wicket helps my style of bowling a little bit more than what other stadiums around Australia would.

One of the best things about the Scorchers is that we’ve got such a varied bowling attack. We’ve got guys who offer all sorts of different things so we can always get a good match-up in there where we need to and it’s just great to feed off guys like that where it can become a little difficult to cope (for a batter).

Q. The late great Shane Warne had a lot of positive things to say about you when he first saw you bowl. What was that one piece of advice that will always stay with you?

Peter Hatzoglou: One little thing I got from him is, I remember I played a game against the Brisbane Heat at Marvel Stadium in 2021. He was commentating on the game, it was the first time he had commentated on one of my games.

It was a whole over, probably four minutes long, and he basically commentated on it from start to finish, talked through what I was doing and what I was trying to execute. Fortunately for me, I executed quite well in that over. He was very complimentary of me. Whenever I need to go back to something to get my spirits back up, that video is often something I turn to. It’s a little four-minute clip saved on my phone. I was really fortunate to get complimentary words from someone like that.

I reached out to him after that summer and just thanked him for his words and commentary. Look It’s not like we had a huge relationship or anything like that, but he was always very kind to me and gave me time when he obviously didn’t need to. I’ve really been fortunate in that a lot of different people in the cricket world have done that for me. It’s great to get that advice and great to have people like that I can lean on at different times.

Q. The great man's words of praise would have certainly boosted your confidence, right?

Peter Hatzoglou: Yeah, absolutely, for sure. He was fantastic. As far as confidence goes, I remember I read an article where he said ‘I reckon this guy could get a chance in the IPL’ and stuff like that. And obviously going to the IPL is something that a lot of players aspire to do and is most definitely a goal of mine. To have an endorsement from someone like that is something I hold very dear to my heart.

Q. There’s a 50-over World Cup in India in 2023 and a T20 World Cup the year after. Peter Hatzoglou has his eyes set on those, surely?

Peter Hatzoglou: I’ll just try to put my performances together in the Big Bash and the various other competitions I may play around the world or here in Australia. You never want to look too far ahead. For now, I’ve got the Big Bash. I guess it’s just about living in the present and just trying to do as best as you can on game day and that’s what my focus is on for now.

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Peter Hatzoglou is living the moment and taking it as it comes. The sky is the limit for the Australian leggie and this swift rise could surely have many more wonderful chapters to be added in due course of time.

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From family values to cricket and multi-cultural representation in Australian sport. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Peter Hatzoglou exclusive ft. his father Nick Hatzoglou on Sportskeeda.