T20 World Cup: The Scots will be playing teams like India and Pakistan in Super 12: Team Scotland is growing day by day. They made it to the biggest event of the shortest format and justified their inclusion by topping the Group in Round 1 of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The team is brimming with confidence ahead of their Super 12 clash against Afghanistan and they want to make the most of it and use the Twenty20 World Cup as a platform to push their case to become cricket’s next full member, batsman Calum MacLeod said on Sunday.
The Scottish side won all three matches in the preliminary round, including a victory over Bangladesh, to seal their spot in Group Two and play Afghanistan in Sharjah on Monday.
T20 World Cup: Upbeat Scotland eye Test status after World Cup heroics
“I think it’s hugely significant, not just for the team but for the organisation and some of the aspirations that Cricket Scotland have. We want to be the leading associate, and we want to push our case to be the next full member.
“I think if you look specifically at the way Afghanistan and Ireland did it, they did it from doing well at World Cups, and I think we’ve now got five great opportunities to go out and show world cricket what this organisation and the team is about,” MacLeod, 32, told reporters.
Scotland, currently an associate side, has long harboured hopes of getting promoted to become full members – the elite group of teams permitted to play in the traditional five-day Test matches. The International Cricket Council has 12 full members, with Ireland and Afghanistan the last teams to be promoted in 2017.
Today we leave what has been an amazing home for Group B of the @T20WorldCup 👋
Thank you to everybody in Oman that has made this such a special place to play cricket and we can’t wait to come back!
Al Amerat Stadium, you were our setting for history 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/HHaBW20ig2
— Cricket Scotland (@CricketScotland) October 22, 2021
T20 World Cup: Upbeat Scotland eye Test status after World Cup heroics
T20 World Cup: Scotland will face Afghanistan in opening clash: MacLeod also talked about their preparations ahead of the big Super 12 clash against Afghanistan. He revealed that the team is banking on the confidence of players and will look to put pressure on Afghanistan who will be playing their first game.
“The good thing of having the first round is that we’ve come in with confidence. It’ll be Afghanistan’s first game in the tournament, and we can also go in there and put some pressure on them. We’ll come and play the aggressive type of cricket we want to play,” said MacLeod.
