Australia’s right-arm speedster Josh Hazlewood on Tuesday, stated that eliminating defending champions England from the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 would be “in our best interests as well as probably everyone else”.
Former champions Australia blew away Namibia by nine wickets as they chased down the modest 72-run target in 5.4 overs to qualify for the Super 8s with one game to spare.
Australia will face Scotland in their last group-stage fixture which could decide England’s fate in the T20 World Cup 2024 even if they manage to beat Oman and Namibia in their remaining group matches.
Meanwhile, Josh Hazlewood, who returned brilliant figures of 2/18 in his side’s statement victory over Namibia, hinted at the possibility of exploiting England’s difficulty in the tournament in the post-match press conference.
“In this tournament, you potentially come up against England at some stage again and they’re probably one of the top few teams on their day,” stated Hazlewood.
“We’ve had some real struggles against them in T20 cricket, so if we can get them out of the tournament, that’s in our best interest as well as probably everyone else’s I think.
“It will be interesting to see, never really been in this position before as a team I don’t think.
“Whether we have discussions or not, or we just try and play again the way we played tonight, that will be up to people, not me.”
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Josh Hazlewood was then pressed to reveal what would Australia’s tactics be to knock England out of the tournament.
“Not too sure really. Whether you get close and just knock it around, drag it out.
“There are a few options there, but to take confidence from winning and winning well, I think that’s almost more important than potentially trying to knock someone else out.
“They [England] have still got a lot to do on their behalf as well. So, I think it will become clearer the closer we get to that sort of stuff.”
It is worth mentioning that reigning champions England are in a tough situation, pertaining to their qualification to the Super 8s stage of the T20 World Cup as they are fourth in Group B with just one point in two matches.
The defending champions had their campaign opener against Scotland washed out before they succumbed to a 36-run defeat against arch-rivals Australia.
READ: India avoid USA scare to reach T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8s