When Scotland debut at the world stage in the World Cup, some of the great captains of the modern era such as Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting and MS Dhoni had not even started. The year was 1999 and the Scotts were making their World Cup debut in England.
Fast forward to 2021, they have just one win in the World Cup to show against their long history and rather have had an uninspiring history to be boastful about.
The solitary win came over Hong Kong, the side that came onto the world stage far later after them in the 2016 edition of the ICC World T20. However, instead of starting off their journey on a fresh note after that win, their journey went into a tailspin and they suffered massive heartbreak in the form of knocking out of the contention for the next ODI World Cup in England.
Scotland’s road to World Cup
There was no end to their misery and they were on the brink of another missed opportunity for the World Cup in the ICC World Cup Qualifying event in 2019. They suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of Singapore, a newbie compared to their age in international cricket and two losses against the Netherlands, Namibia had put a big question mark over their belonging to the top level.
From being a firm favourite to qualify from their group—Group A, they slipped to fourth on the points table and had to take a far more competitive route to ensure they did not miss the other bus to a World Cup event.
Now, having a long history but not without significant achievement they would be proud of, Scotland are banking on something else— “belief”, to come with stronger force in the T20 World Cup starting Monday, October 18.
“We have skills throughout with bat, ball and in the field but I think our biggest strength is our belief,” their most prominent star and captain Kyle Coetzer said. “As a team, as a country, we really believe now that we are capable of playing on the world stage and in World Cups, so our main strength as team is belief.”
Scotland’s big players
Kyle Coetzer
Scotland’s skipper Coetzer made his World Cup debut in the 2009 edition of the ICC World T20 and did not appear too fussed about the enormity of the occasion and the event. He announced his arrival with a solid 32-ball 42 against a very strong South Africa and followed it up with a swashbuckling 15-ball 33 against the hosts England.
It was Coetjer only who kept the “belief” alive in the Scottish side as they ran closer to defeating the eventual runners up New Zealand and Afghanistan in the 2015 ICC ODI World Cup. He smashed a magnificent 134-ball 156 against a Bangladesh side who were strong enough to knock Eoin Morgan’s England out of the tournament.
Scotland are starting their World T20 2021 campaign against Bangladesh and there is no doubt about who will be the biggest player to watch out for in the contest against the Bangla Tigers.
Calum MacLeod
A sublime innings of 157 runs against an Afghanistan bowling attack comprising of Rashid Khan and other impressive Afghan pacers in the World Cup qualifier tournament in 2018 and a 94-ball 140 against an England bowling attack comprising of Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett, David Willey and Adil Rashid establish the batting credentials of Calum MacLeod.
Both Rashids (Adil and Khan) are known champion leg spinners on the world stage and his side will have high hopes of him in the upcoming tournament conspiring a lot of their matches will be played on pitches conducive to spin bowling.
MacLeod is a fluent stroke maker and would love the pace and bounce on the pitches in Dubai and Scotland’s batting performances hinge heavily on the shoulders of MacLeod and Coetjer.
How far can they go?
Scotland have their task cut out in order to qualify to the super 12 of the tournament. Bangladesh are the firm favourites to be the first team to qualify and that leaves Scotland to face must-win games against Papua New Guinea, who too are not short of “belief”, and Oman.
Scotland had defected both these sides in a bid to qualify for the event, but not before the matches went down the wire and the Scottish skipper will have to urger his troops to be on their toes from the first game against Bangladesh itself.
Anything can happen in the game of cricket, especially in this format, but Scotland are the second most likely side to get over the line and into the main draw of the tournament.
Scotland squad
Kyle Coetzer (captain), Richard Berrington, Dylan Budge, Matthew Cross (wk), Josh Davey, Ally Evans, Chris Greaves, Michael Leask, Calum Macleod, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Hamza Tahir, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt, Brad Wheal.
Reserves: Michael Jones, Chris Sole.
Scotland fixtures
17 Oct - against Bangladesh
19 Oct - against Papua New Guinea
21 Oct - against Oman