Pat Cummins says England’s T20 World Cup issue will not affect Australia’s final Group B match against Scotland in 2024.
The Australia Test and ODI captain believes the nebulous idea would be violated if his team did not try all possible to defeat Scotland in their final T20 World Cup group-stage game. England, the tournament’s defending winners, will be eliminated if Australia loses to Scotland.
If Australia wins, Scotland will be eliminated after Jos Buttler’s team defeated Oman on Thursday, raising their net run rate (NRR) from -1.8 to 3.081, which is far higher than their British opponents’ 2.164.
Predetermined Super Eight seedings and failure to carry over NRR from the first round have placed Australia in this position after defeating Namibia to advance to the next phase.
Josh Hazlewood did say after the game that it could be in his team’s best interests to remove England, a team they have struggled to win in recent T20s despite defeating them in Barbados last week.
“Against the spirit of cricket”- Pat Cummins on notion that Australia will underperform to eliminate England
Pat Cummins says England’s T20 World Cup situation will not influence the way Australia approaches their last Group B encounter against Scotland. While Hazlewood said that removing England would benefit everyone.
“In this tournament, you potentially come up against England at some stage again and they are probably one of the top few teams on their day and we have 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,” Hazlewood had said, according to ESPNcricinfo.
But Cummins claimed Hazlewood had been joking and his remarks taken out of context.
“When you go out and play, you’re trying your best every time. And if you’re not, it’s probably against the spirit of cricket. I haven’t really thought too deeply because it’s never really popped up. I was speaking to Joshy who had a bit of a joke about it the other day and it got taken a bit out of context. We’ll go out there and try to play Scotland who have had a really good tournament so far so it’s going to be tough. It’s something you discuss as one of the quirks of the setup, but it does it change the way we play? Absolutely not,” Cummins told reporters in St Lucia on Thursday.
“I don’t think you can (go into a game not trying to win) – ever. You’re playing an international game in the middle of a World Cup. You still want to try and have a good game and carry that on into the Super Eights. I’ve never stepped onto the field without the mindset of being aggressive like the guys have so far,” he added.
Australia’s squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
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