The two finalists of the 2022 T20 World Cup, England and Pakistan have been off to a horrendous start in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Pakistan at last managed a win against Canada in their third game of the campaign, while England continue to remain winless after their first two games of the campaign. 

The reigning champions’ first game of the tournament was washed off after Scotland were off to a flying start, scoring 90 runs in 10 overs with no wickets lost. In the following against arch-rivals Australia, the mighty English were defeated by 36 runs by the 2021 World T20 champions. This has resulted in a -1.7 net run rate for Jos Buttler’s team. 

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Meanwhile, Scotland managed to win both of their next two games against Oman and Namibia by good margins, boosting their net run rate. Thus, threatening England’s super 8s spot since Australia have already qualified with three wins in three games. 

The Aussies will be playing their final game of the group stage against Scotland with nothing much to play for since they have already sealed their Super 8 spot. Australia pacer Josh Hazelwood hinted that they could try and manage the result in the last group game to put England’s Super 8 qualification in jeopardy. 

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Will Australia try to plot early England exit?

If England do manage to win their games against Oman and Namibia and Scotland lose to Australia, it would be a game of net run rates. 

But, Australia will be playing their final game against Scotland in Group B, after England plays their final game against Namibia, giving a lot of time to the Aussies to calculate the maximum margin they need to defeat Scotland to ensure England getting knocked out and Scotland qualifying instead. 

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Reported by Fox Sports recently, Hazlewood stated that it would be in theirs and others’ best interest if England get knocked out of the tournament since they are one of the favourties to lift the title and defend their win from 2022. 

“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,” he said. 

Australia had previously plotted a similar plan way back in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, damaging New Zealand’s qualification chances to the Super Six stage, defeating West Indies by a slight margin to not damage their net run rate.

But, back then, results from the group stage carried through to the next round unlike nowadays, and Australia had already lost to New Zealand once in the group stage.

Only time can tell if Australia pulls off something like this, but it will definitely be a brutal way to end England’s 2024 T20 World Cup campaign.