‘They’ve improved a hell of a lot’: Scotland eager to prove full-member credentials after T20 World Cup heartbreak

It has been more than a decade since the Australian men’s cricket team visited Scotland, facing the hosts in a one-off ODI in Edinburgh in 2013.

Australia, featuring the likes of Shane Watson, Adam Voges and Clint McKay, cruised towards a 200-run victory in the Scottish capital, with openers Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh cracking centuries in a 246-run partnership.

Led by Mitchell Marsh, the Australians returned to Scotland this week for a three-match bilateral T20 series, welcomed by the drone of a blaring bagpipe as they exited the team bus.

Scotland, 13th in the men’s T20I rankings, undoubtedly heads into the white-ball series as heavy underdogs, but the British side poses a significantly bigger threat than when Australia previously visited The Grange.

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Over the past decade, Scotland has successfully knocked off several Test-playing nations across formats, most notably a six-run victory over big brother England in an ODI in 2018.

The Scots almost booked their place in last year’s 50-over World Cup in the subcontinent after toppling Zimbabwe, Ireland and the West Indies during the qualifiers, but they fell to the Netherlands at the final hurdle.

They’ve enjoyed further success in T20 World Cup campaigns, beating Bangladesh in 2021 and two-time champions the West Indies in 2022, while they were bitterly unlucky not to qualify for the Super Eights of this year’s tournament in the Americas.

Scotland cruised towards 0-90 in the tenth over of their group-stage contest against England before rain intervened and forced a washout, also sending an almighty scare through the Australian camp a week later.

Australia needed 87 runs from 39 balls during the run chase to avoid a historic defeat, but all-rounder Marcus Stoinis plundered a rapid fifty to shatter the Scottish team’s hearts.

“Scotland are a really good outfit, I think they’ve improved a hell of a lot over the last few years,” Australian captain Marsh said at the time.

“We’ve got a lot of respect for them, they took it down to the wire.”

Scotland, having only suffered one loss during the group stage, was knocked out due to net run rate despite crushing wins over Oman and Namibia.

The team returned home crestfallen, but this year’s T20 World Cup campaign proved once again they were no longer cricket’s perennial easybeats.

Spinner Mark Watt believes Scotland is ready for full-member status, telling the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast earlier this year: “It’s just really frustrating. I feel like at every major competition, we do really well and people are like, ‘Wow, Scotland are actually pretty decent, they’re doing really well.’ And then you don’t see us again for the next two years. Then the exact same process happens again.

“We’ve shown what we can do and what we’re capable of against these top-tier names as well as beating the teams who we would be expected to beat. I feel like we’ve done all we can to put a point across about how good we are and that we do belong in that (full member) system.”

Scotland’s recent improvement can be attributed to having more opportunities against Test-playing nations and the ongoing growth of T20 leagues.

Courtesy of domestic competitions like Canada’s GT20, the United Arab Emirates’ ILT20 and England’s T20 Blast, Scotland’s best cricketers regularly test their skills against the world’s best talent. While T20 leagues are seen as a threat to Test-playing nations, they’ve proven invaluable for cricket from second-tier sides.

The sport’s congested calendar has made it challenging for Scotland to persuade full-member nations to visit Edinburgh, but Ireland’s withdrawal from hosting Australia this autumn created a vacancy. Australia won’t field a full-strength team at The Grange this week, but Scotland’s players will still face the likes of Marsh, Travis Head, and Adam Zampa.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to play against the best in these three games against Australia,” Scotland head coach Doug Watson said.

“What a great way for us to finish off the summer. We’d love to play the bigger teams more often than we do and hopefully we can in the future.

“I was extremely proud of how our guys played in the World Cup. They stood up, pushed their chests out and represented Scotland with all their hearts. They gave it their all. That’s probably why I’m equally excited about the next three games.

“Any game that we play in we want to win. We want to compete and put in some really good performances. If we can stick to our processes, hit our areas when we bowl, are really competitive in the field and bat really well, we can push Australia all the way.”

Scotland’s 17-player squad features every member of their T20 World Cup touring party along with Perth-raised bowler Charlie Cassell, who claimed a record-breaking seven-wicket haul on ODI debut last month, and Michael English, who scored a century on ODI debut against Namibia.

The first T20 between Scotland and Australia gets underway on Wednesday at 11pm AEST.

Australia’s T20 tour of Scotland

All times AEST

September 4 – First T20, Edinburgh, 11pm

September 6 – Second T20, Edinburgh, 11pm

September 7 – Third T20, Edinburgh, 11pm

Australia’s T20 Squad

Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Riley Meredith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

Scotland’s T20 squad

Richie Berrington (c), Charlie Cassell, Matthew Cross, Bradley Currie, Jasper Davidson, Chris Greaves, Oli Hairs, Jack Jarvis, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Brandon McMullen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Chris Sole, Charlie Tear, Mark Watt, Bradley Wheal