Brandon McMullen says Scotland will be ‘back stronger’ after T20 World Cup exit

Scotland captain Brandon McMullen hopes they bounce back stronger after narrowly missing out on a place in the Super 8s stage of the T20 World Cup.

England’s rain-affected victory over Namibia meant Scotland needed to get a result against Australia to progress but despite giving their opponents a scare they slipped to a five-wicket defeat with only two balls to spare.

McMullen fired 60 from 34 balls to help Scotland post 180 and Travis Head scored 68 in the reply.

With Australia needing 60 from the final five overs, Marcus Stoinis hit a game-changing half-century.

McMullen insists Scotland are hurting but will come back better from the loss.

He said: “It’s hugely disappointing – as a group we’ve played some real good cricket in this tournament.

“We had a good start in the first half of the game and the first innings and we just couldn’t quite back it up in the bowling.

“We try and stay as level as possible and go from there and keep raising the bar each game we go to.

“Each day is a new day, each game is a new game. We’ve really enjoyed ourselves at the World Cup and we’ll be back next time stronger.”

Scotland’s failure to qualify for the Super Eights means they do not gain automatic qualification for the next tournament.

He added: “Having to qualify for that next T20 World Cup in 2026, We still have to play good cricket leading up to it.

“It’s obviously unfortunate we could have qualified straight away going into the Super 8s, but it is what it is and we move forward and can take a lot of positives out from this tournament so far.”