EDINBURGH: Scotland must defy a lack of match action if they are to equal their achievements of last year at next week’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.
The Scots won all three matches in their group at the 2021 tournament in the UAE and Oman, including a victory against Test nation Bangladesh, before losing all five games in the second phase.
Since then they have played just two T20 official internationals, suffering heavy defeats against New Zealand in July.
But Scotland beat the Netherlands by 18 runs in a warm-up match in Melbourne on Monday, with captain Richie Berrington top-scoring with 41.
Scotland, ranked 15th in T20 cricket, play their Group B opener against the West Indies in Hobart on October 17 in a match in which the two-time T20 world champions from the Caribbean will be heavy favourites.
The other teams in Group B are Ireland and Zimbabwe, with the four sides battling it out for two places in the Super 12 phase.
Scotland cricket chiefs will be desperate for success on the pitch with the game in the country still reeling from a damning report in July that found nearly 450 examples of institutional racism.
The entire Cricket Scotland board resigned 24 hours before the report was published, with the organisation placed into special measures.
A new chairman, Anjan Luthra, is now in post.
Bowlers Brad Wheal and Josh Davey, who both play English county cricket, are in the World Cup squad while all-rounder Brandon McMullen has earned a maiden call-up after impressing in Scottish domestic cricket.
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Spin pair Mark Watt and Hamza Tahir will add variety to the attack.
South Africa-born Berrington, 35, who scored two half-centuries on his way to 177 runs at last year’s tournament, will be one of the key batsmen along with George Munsey and Calum MacLeod.
“We haven’t played a lot of T20 cricket as a group since last year’s World Cup, but we know what we can do in this format,” said head coach Shane Burger.
“I have faith that the guys are going to step up to the mark again when the tournament proper gets under way.”
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