Scots revel in 'incredible opportunity' at World Cup

Scotland won the European T20 World Cup Qualifier in Edinburgh last summer

Scotland are raring to go for the T20 World Cup, with head coach Doug Watson urging his squad to make the most of the "incredible opportunity" to take on England and Australia in the Caribbean.

The Scots, who open against defending champions England on Tuesday, also face Oman and Namibia in Group B.

Having only played six T20 matches this year, there are welcome warm-up matches to come in Trinidad against Uganda on Thursday and Afghanistan on Friday before travelling to Barbados to get their tournament started.

"The Oman and Namibia games can’t be taken lightly," said Watson. "They are two tough teams, really experienced, and they’ve grown over the last couple of years.

"And playing England and Australia is an incredible opportunity.

"We’re coming off the back of (last summer’s ODI World Cup) qualifying campaign where we got past West Indies and Zimbabwe and that’s put us in a position where we’re pretty confident and looking forward to the opportunity of facing these guys.

"Every tournament we play, we want to win every game. But we just need to dial it back and make sure we are focusing on every moment of every game and not looking too far ahead. We also need to make sure we enjoy every moment."

Watson took over in April following a successful period in interim charge in 2023.

During that spell, Scotland also beat Ireland, Oman and the UAE in the 50-over format and came through the T20 European qualifiers with a 100% record.

'We can use the underdog card'

Bowler Brad Currie made his debut under Watson last year and described his first few days in the Caribbean as "surreal".

The 25-year-old revealed that he had been reminiscing about childhood games with his brother Scott.

He said: "We'd hit the ball into our neighbours' garden and our parents would shout 'it's not the World Cup', well now it is!

"You grow up watching these tournaments. It's pretty crazy. I'm not one of the big stars of the tournament, but just being part of it is special."

This is the sixth T20 World Cup Scotland have reached, failing to win a game in 2007 and 2009 before beating Hong Kong in 2016.

In 2021, they topped a first round group with wins over Bangladesh, Oman and Papua New Guinea before losing all five outings in the Super 12 phase.

The 2022 competition did not go so well, with Scotland failing to build on a win over West Indies and failing to progress from the first round.

"We can use the underdog card," added Currie. "There's not too much expectation, so I want to try and enjoy it and not see it as a nerve-wracking event."