Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has said it would be in his team’s “best interest” to do what they can to knock England out of the T20 Cricket World Cup.
Australia beat England at the weekend to leave the defending champions needing wins against Oman today and then Namibia to have any shot at progressing through to the Super Eight stage of the tournament in the United States and Caribbean.
Scotland can do England a favour by losing to Australia but the Green and Golds have suggested they’d help the Scots if it meant damaging world champions England.
On making circumstances as difficult as possible for England captain Jos Buttler’s men, Hazlewood said: “Yeah, I think so.
“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.
“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.”
Australia sit top of their group on six points from six with Scotland in behind on five points from their three games.
Namibia have two points, England have one point and Oman are yet to register a point.
Two wins for England would take them to five points, level with Scotland. They’d then need the Australians to beat Scotland and for England to pick up huge wins over Oman and Namibia.
The odds are stacked against Buttler’s side but he has said they cannot dwell on permutations.