Hussain: Pitch may hinder England’s advantage in T20 World Cup progress race

Nasser Hussain says England hold an advantage in the race to qualify from Group 1 at the T20 World Cup, but says the pitch they play Sri Lanka on on Saturday could prove the challenge.

In a very tight Group 1, a victory of any description will be enough for England to progress to the semi-finals if one or both of New Zealand and Australia suffer defeats on Friday, with all three sides currently locked together on five points from four matches, after two wins, one loss and a no result each.

However, New Zealand will be heavy favourites to beat Ireland and Australia likewise against Afghanistan, so there is the distinct possibility that net run-rate will decide who progresses from this pool and into the last four.

Speaking to the Sky Sports Cricket vodcast from the T20 World Cup in Australia, Hussain touched on the importance of England playing after Australia this weekend, but did add a word of warning regarding England’s potential playing surface…

“Firstly, they [England] will have the advantage in that Australia play Afghanistan tomorrow [Friday] night in Adelaide, so they’ll know if, say Australia win well – and some of their players are getting through their fitness like Finch, Stoinis – England will know the exact equation,” Hussain said.

“You have to win, or you have to win and do so by a certain amount of runs.

“But they’ve got a healthy lead (run-rate-wise in the group) at the moment.

“The challenge will actually, again, be the pitch.

“South Africa vs Pakistan [on Thursday] is played on the same pitch as New Zealand beat Sri Lanka on a couple of nights ago.

“So that’s a used pitch. If they use that again on Saturday, that will bring Sri Lanka into it.

“Because with their three spinners: Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, they will be useful, and obviously their batters are used to batting on tired pitches.

“If it’s a fresh pitch, I really fancy England.

“But as Aaron Finch [Australia skipper] said the other day when asked about it, you have to win the game first. You can’t go too hard, too early and then lose the game and the run-rate is irrelevant.

“Get yourself into a position where you’re going to win the game, and then – we’ve been in World Cups before, and I was involved in one – you’ve just got to make sure you get across the line.

“I remember after the very first game of this World Cup against Afghanistan, someone was tweeting me: ‘Why are you waffling on about the strike rate and the net run-rate Nasser? It’s only the first game!’

“But only the first game is just as important as only the last game because the net run-rate situation counts throughout.

“You don’t want to get to the last ball on Saturday, and think: ‘Crikey, I wish we’d gone harder earlier in the tournament’.”

Watch England vs Sri Lanka, in Sydney, live on Sky Sports Cricket on Saturday. Build-up begins at 7.30am ahead of an 8am start.