On Monday 6 May, the Scottish national cricket team announced its 15-man squad for the upcoming 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, scheduled to be hosted in the West Indies and the USA in June.
The 2024 edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup begins on June 1, with the final scheduled for June 29. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be the ninth edition of the T20 World Cup organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England national cricket team will take part in the competition as defending champions. In addition, 20 teams will take part in the competition for the first time.
Scotland was placed in Group B of the World Cup along with England, Australia, Oman and Namibia. In order to prepare well for the mega event, Scotland will compete in a three-match series against the Netherlands national cricket team and the Irish national cricket team from May 18th.
As for the Scotland squad, two key players have returned for the World Cup in batsman Michael Jones and pacer Brad Wheal. Notably, the above-mentioned players who also played in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia will not take part in the tri-series.
The Scotland national cricket team is led by experienced all-rounder Richie Berrington, who has played over 200 white-ball games at international level, and they will be looking to record some big wins this time around.
Team Scotland will head to the World Cup on Sunday May 26th. They will travel to Trinidad and Tobago for two warm-up games against Afghanistan and Uganda and then their next destination is Barbados where they will train and open their season against the England national cricket team in Bridgetown on Tuesday 4 June.
It was a really difficult selection session – Scotland head coach
In an official statement from Cricket Scotland, the team’s head coach Doug Watson stated that they had found it difficult to select the best 15 players for the World Cup, adding that they had finally settled on a squad that would allow them to be the best Balance. He also spoke about the return of Michael Jones and Brad Wheal to the marquee tournament. He stated:
“It was a really difficult selection session and narrowing the team down to fifteen players is never easy. I think it was ultimately about finding the right balance in the squad and we feel like we’ve achieved that here. It’s good to have some of our county players available to us and we’re really excited about the fifteen we’ve picked so we can now look forward to what lies ahead.
“To have Michael Jones and Brad Wheal available, their experience from previous T20 World Cups is vital to the group. I’m looking forward to getting to know them both, getting to know them and seeing their skills up close.
“Most of the squad have been together for some time and did a fantastic job in both the 50-over qualifier last year and the T20 qualifier last summer. It’s nice to have a bit of continuity along the way, even if they haven’t played much cricket since then. Hopefully when we arrive in the Caribbean we can see the same, if not higher, standard of these players.”
Doug Watson expressed his excitement about the future of Scottish cricket, saying the T20 World Cup offered players the best opportunity to shine on the global stage. He stated:
“I’m very excited about what lies ahead and I think the players are too as we get closer to it. We still have a few games ahead of us until then; In a few weeks we play against the Netherlands and Ireland and that will be good to be a bit more competitive. We are now done with training and want to play competitive cricket.
“It is a real opportunity for us as a nation to shine on the global stage. Looking at the cricket landscape now, with all the different franchises these guys can play around the world, this is still the pinnacle. From a personal and team perspective it is huge.
“The first game against England will be quite a day – but we won’t look too far ahead. We’ll just make sure we prepare well as a team and individually to represent Scotland in the best way we can.”
Scotland squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup:
Richie Berrington (c), Matthew Cross, Brad Currie, Chris Greaves, Oli Hairs, Jack Jarvis, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Brandon McMullen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Chris Sole, Charlie Tear, Mark Watt, Brad Wheal.