Scotland can ‘learn massively’ despite 3-0 series defeat by Australia

One man to shine with the bat for Scotland was Brandon McMullen, whose reputation has only been boosted after two half-centuries in this series.

The 24-year-old looked totally unfazed by coming up against big name bowlers and Watson says the sky is the limit for the South Africa-born talent.

“He works hard on his game, he is very reflective, he is very calm and he wants to be brilliant,” Watson said. “He played some outstanding shots and he showed his class again.”

The last time Australia were in Edinburgh in 2013, Scotland were scraping to a not dissimilar total in a one-day international, which highlights just how far they have developed as a cricketing nation.

They have showed in recent years they are capable of not just competing against Test-playing nations but beating them too, with West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Ireland all falling victim to the Scots in the shortest format of the game.

Getting Australia to tour Edinburgh was something of a coup in itself, but the hope now is that this series is not a one-off and other top nations will come to Scotland in the summers to come.

“It was a great opportunity to see some of our younger guys at this level,” spinner Mark Watt said. “We’ve progressed and learned from every game. It is a 3-0 loss, but a lot to learn from it.

“A lot of the boys are going to learn massively from this. We’re delighted the Aussies made the effort to come here and hopefully we can get more and more bigger nations to come.”

Watson added: “We want to play more top class teams. We can also prepare better for games like this so we hit the ground better. Be creative in our thinking so we’re more ready.”

With healthy crowds packed into the Grange for all three games – despite some typically Scottish weather – Watt hopes the series has gone some way to “inspire” the next generation.

“It shows the level we need to get to,” he added. “We always say as a team what we want to do is inspire a nation and the more days like this with 3,000-4,000 people at the Grange, you’re going to inspire a lot more kids.

“That’s what we want to do and having chances against Australia is going to provide a lot of belief for younger people watching us.”