England head coach reacts to Josh Hazlewood's 'get them out' comment with strong 'integrity' remark: 'I know Josh...'

Ahead of England's T20 World Cup clash against Oman, head coach Matthew Mott responded to Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood's comments about aiming to knock England out of the tournament, suggesting they were likely made in jest. England, facing a critical match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Thursday, are in a tricky spot. Currently fourth in Group B after a no result against Scotland and a defeat to Australia, England must win against both Oman and Namibia to avoid elimination.

Australia have already secured their place in the Super Eight. If Scotland manage to either upset Australia or lose by a very small margin in their upcoming game on Sunday, they could join the 2021 champions in advancing to the next round. The pressure is on England to perform, knowing that their fate hangs in the balance.

In a pre-match press conference after the win over Namibia on Wednesday, Hazlewood had remarked that eliminating England would be in everyone's best interest, a statement that added fuel to the already high-stakes situation.

Mott, however, remained hopeful that Hazlewood's comments were made in good humour, focusing instead on the crucial task at hand: securing victories in the remaining matches to keep England's championship hopes 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.

Focussed on winning the next match

Mott said irrespective of Josh's remarks or any other outside noise about qualification, run rates etc, the team is focused on winning their next game.

"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 added.