Australia's pacer Mitchell Starc stated that that Josh Hazlewood’s remarks about getting England out of the T20 World Cup 2024 were taken out of proportion by everyone.
Addressing a press conference after Australia defeated Scotland at the Beausejour Stadium, Starc told the media personnel attending the conference, "I think a throwaway line has been blown right out of proportion by you lot.”
He added that Australia is here to win and the statement was certainly taken out of context, "You don't stuff around with mother cricket and trying to worry about other results. We're here to win games. It's international cricket. England now are on the other side of the draw, so it really doesn't make that much difference for the next three games. So yeah, I think that was blown right out of proportion by you guys.”
Speaking in a press conference during the T20 World Cup 2024, Hazlewood said that England is one of the top few teams on their day so it would be better for everyone to get England out of the tournament.
"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,” the pacer had said.
He was then asked what tactics the Kangaroos would use to get the English out of the tournament and he replied, "I am not too sure. You get close; you then just knock it around and drag it out. There are a few options."
England won the last edition of the T20 World Cup in 2022 and were on the verge of returning home as their first game against Scotland was abandoned due to rain and they lost their second game against Australia.
Scotland won two of their four group games against Namibia and Oman. If they had won against Australia, then England would have been out of the T20 World Cup but England qualified based on a better net run rate (NRR) than Scotland despite having the same number of points (five).
- Mitchell Starc
