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England's coach Matthew Mott downplayed comments by Australian bowler Josh Hazlewood, who said his team was aiming to knock England out of the T20 World Cup. Mott believes the comments were likely meant as a joke.
However, England's situation is far from humorous. Their upcoming match against Oman is crucial. Currently in fourth place in Group B, England needs wins against both Oman and Namibia to avoid elimination. A loss against Scotland and a washout against Australia have left them in a precarious position.
Australia, on the other hand, has already secured their spot in the next stage, the Super Eight. Even Scotland has a chance to join them, depending on the outcome of their upcoming match against Australia. The pressure is on England to perform well and avoid a disappointing early exit from the tournament.
Following Australia's victory over Namibia, Josh Hazlewood stirred the pot at a press conference. He suggested that knocking England out of the tournament would benefit everyone. This comment came at a time when tensions were already running high due to the importance of England's upcoming matches.
Despite the provocative statement, England's coach, Matthew Mott, chose to remain optimistic. He believes Hazlewood might have been joking. Mott's focus, however, is firmly set on the task ahead: winning the remaining matches and keeping England's chances of winning the championship alive.
"To be honest, I was informed of that this morning. Look to me, that is things out of our control and I think I know Josh pretty well and I know his integrity. I do not think that is a thing. He has got a very good sense of humour and hopefully, that is what he was doing," Mott said at the pre-match press conference.
Despite what Josh Hazlewood said, or any other distractions about qualifying, run rates, and so on, the team is only thinking about winning their next match.
"I know Jos (Buttler) spoke really well yesterday about how we need to push hard in this game as well and I think that is what teams do. Nice, cool, calculated response. It is going to be a good wicket out here by the looks of it. We are going with a lot of confidence, I think. We have played good T20 cricket for a while now. It did not quite come off against Australia in the last game but I think we have got our structure in place, we are really confident. Those who saw us train yesterday, you can see a buoyant group up and about that is ready for the challenge ahead," he concluded.
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