Former England captain Michael Vaughan has said if the defending champions are to win the 2024 T20 World Cup, they would require captain Jos Buttler and fast-bowler Jofra Archer to be at their absolute best from Super Eights onwards.
England went through the Super Eight of the tournament after defeating Namibia by 41 runs in a rain-affected Group B match in Antigua on Saturday. They were hugely helped by Australia knocking out Scotland with a five-wicket win in St Lucia.
England will now face co-hosts West Indies and USA, as well as South Africa in Group 2 of the Super Eights.
“To get to the semi-finals and even further, England need two players at their best. Jofra Archer is hugely important for England. He’s that bowler who can bowl every over of the 20, and his return has been very good so far.
“And then Jos Buttler has got to find form. The skipper needs to find a bit of rhythm with the bat. Jos is the kind of player that can win a game on his own. England are going to need him,” wrote Vaughan in his column for The Daily Telegraph on Monday.
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He added that if England goes all the way to defend their title, it won’t come as a huge surprise for him. “It wouldn’t surprise me if England won the tournament. It’s reminded me very much of the last T20 World Cup in Australia 18 months ago. England lost to Ireland then and had a horrible week where we all worried that they would be going out – but they put it behind them, won four games in a row and lifted the title.
“That tournament, I reckon they played one pure game – the semi-final against India – but they still did enough. England are a very dangerous team. I worry that they can play incredibly well, but they can produce a very average performance. They’ve become a team that’s quite inconsistent, which is not what we’re used to from the white-ball team.
“In the Super Eight, they’re in what people would term the easier of the groups, meaning no disrespect to the United States. But you would expect the three major teams to win against them. So it comes down to the two big games against South Africa and West Indies – England will have to win at least one. It’s not the worst position to be in at all,” he elaborated.
Vaughan signed off by saying leg-spinner Adil Rashid will become more and more important for England in the Super Eight stage due to the slow nature of pitches in the Caribbean and wants to see Moeen Ali bat at number three to lead the side’s charge against the opposition’s spinners.
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“Spin’s going to play a big part in the last stages of the tournament, as we play on some used pitches, especially in the day games. Adil Rashid will become more and more important in the game.
“If I was playing England, I’d make sure that there was a great player of spin to target Rashid in the seventh over, which he always seems to bowl. Hit Rashid out the attack and you’d mess with England’s plans.
“The crucial question is going to be how England play spin. England has got very good players of spin but they also need to be smart. We’ve seen India use Rishabh Pant at number three.
“So I’d like to see Moeen at number three, to break up the right-handers. If there’s a short boundary to target, or the wind’s a factor, you want a left and right-hand combination out there, especially as West Indies will pick two left-arm spinners.”
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