Josh and Cherina: high school sweethearts and expecting first-time parents

Three months after selecting that terse response to describe married life one year after tying the knot, it has been revealed that the Australian cricket star and his stunning wife, fellow Oxley High alum Cherina Murphy-Christian, are expecting their first child.

In breaking the news to the world this week, Andy Fowler - the coach of Hazlewood's former Indian Premier League (IPL) side the Royal Challengers Bangalore - said the bub was due in late March.

Unsurprisingly, Hazlewood has remained tight-lipped on the matter, a private man who performs with aplomb on a global stage.

The Daily Mail Australia described it as the 32-year-old's "secret baby news".

Given his wife's pregnancy, the Bendemeer Bullet, who this month helped Australia win the World Cup in India, has withdrawn from the upcoming IPL - thereby costing him a truck load of money.

He was paid $1.44 million last season, the most of any Aussie, with the 2024 tournament expected to start on March 23 - smack bang around the child's arrival date.

Hazlewood's Tamworth-based elder brother, Aaron, declined to comment on the pregnancy news when contacted by the Leader. He was more forthcoming when his famous sibling got married on a picturesque estate in the Hunter Valley in August, 2022.

"It was really good to see him finally tie the knot to his high school sweetheart," Aaron said at the time.

Certainly, the past 15 months is dotted with cherished moments for a man who is cherished by a nation, who has led a charmed life - the epicentre of which is his Hunters Hill home on Sydney's north shore.

When in Tamworth for the Bush Summit in August, 2023, the 63-Test veteran joked that living at Hunters Hill made him and his wife "feel pretty young". That may change with the arrival of a baby.

"It's been fine," he also said, in reference to married life. "It's the usual, I guess. I'm always away."

For once, the man called Hoff is staying home.