ICC T20 World Cup 2024: Josh Hazlewood hints at Australia blocking England from entering Super 8

Josh Hazlewood has taken three wickets in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

Australian veteran pacer Josh Hazlewood has accepted that his side might drag the match against Scotland in order to eliminate the defending champions England from the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

From the Group B, Mitchell-Marsh-led Australia have qualified for the next round of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. Australia have won all three group stage matches till now and will play their last fixture against Scotland on Sunday, June 16, at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia.

Meanwhile, Jos Buttler-led England have found themselves in deep trouble at the ongoing marquee event. Their first group stage fixture against Scotland was washed out due to rain. In their next outing, the defending champions suffered a crucial defeat by 36 runs against the mighty Aussies.

In order to qualify for the next round, England must win their remaining two matches against Oman and Namibia – a defeat in either of the match will eliminate them from the T20 World Cup 2024. However, they need to win their remaining fixtures by a pretty good margin in order to surpass Scotland’s NRR.

Australia will try to get England out of the T20 World Cup in 2024: Hazlewood

After winning the match against Namibia by nine wickets at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua, Australia pacer Hazlewood accepted that their side would try to eliminate the defending champions from the T20 World Cup in 2024.

Hazlewood added that they have struggled against the English side in the shortest format, and if Australia can get them out, then it will help others as well.

“Yeah, I think so. In this tournament you potentially come up against England at some stage again and as you said they’re probably one of the top few teams on their day and 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. But yeah, it’ll be interesting to see,” Hazlewood said during the post-match presentation.

“We’ve never really been in this position before as a team I don’t think, so whether we have discussions or not, we’ll just try and play it again the way we did tonight. Yeah, that’ll be up to people, not me,” Hazlewood added.

Drag it out: Hazlewood ahead of Scotland match

The Aussie pacer suggested that one way of ensuring things are difficult for the English side is to drag the game against Scotland for as long as possible. 

The Mitchell Marsh-led side will take on Scotland in the Group B match at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia, on Sunday, June 16.

“Not too sure really, whether you get close and you just knock it around and drag it out. There’s a few options there, but as you said, to take confidence from winning and winning well, I think that’s almost more important than potentially trying to knock someone else out. They’ve still got a lot to do on their behalf as well, so I think it’ll become clearer the closer we get to that sort of stuff,” said the Aussie pacer.

Australia’s squad for T20 World Cup 2024:

Mitchell Marsh (C), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), David Warner, Adam Zampa

Reserves: Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short

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