Scotland 'making huge strides' ahead of T20 World Cup

Bradburn's side are heading to Abu Dhabi

Scotland are targeting a place in the top 10 of world cricket, with head coach Grant Bradburn claiming his squad have made huge strides.

His side lost all six of their matches at the 2015 World Cup.

"We were absolutely gutted not to win a game at the World Cup in the spring, but we were really close," Bradburn told BBC Scotland.

"The side have made big gains in the last 12 months and I couldn't be happier with where the guys are at."

The Scots fly out to Abu Dhabi this weekend for a training camp as they begin preparations for the T20 World Cup in India in March and Bradburn believes they are close to recording a historic first win over one of the top cricketing nations.

"Currently we sit 12th in the world in T20 and 13th in one-day cricket and our major aim is to break into that top 10 eventually," said the New Zealander.

"That might not seem a lot, but there are some powerful associate (non-Test playing) members competing for that honour as well.

"Don't forget that Scotland have never won a match at the World Cup before and we've never beaten a full member nation.

"Myself and my squad believe that that time is coming and we're just keeping our heads down and building our skills to a point where we know that, if we can get over the line against a full member nation, this side has every ability to break into that top 10 eventually.

"It is a real credit to the squad for embracing that and making the changes that we know we need to make."

Scotland's first target is to become the top associate nation and they will have to come through a group also containing Hong Kong, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan if they are to face the full member nations in the Second/Super 10 round in India.

"This side has made some huge strides since the World Cup down under in early 2015," said Bradburn.

"We are very confident in our white ball game. We love playing one-day cricket and we love T20 and we've got a very skilled T20 side.

"There's no reason why we can't go to that pre-qualifier to the World Cup very confident, but we're well aware we're up against some very good sides and that, in T20, anything can happen."