Ahead of their T20 World Cup opener, Scotland's Mark Watt expressed confidence in beating West Indies again. He cited recent wins, noted their job is to defeat Test nations, and believes teams won't take them lightly.
Scotland spinner Mark Watt expressed confidence ahead of the team's ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 campaign opener against West Indies on Saturday.
Mark Watt, in an interview to ESPNcricinfo, also noted that Scotland's job is to defeat Test-playing nations at the T20 WC.
Confident of repeating past success
Speaking ahead of the West Indies match, Scotland's Mark Watt said Scotland are confident of beating West Indies again, citing recent wins and the team's strong belief in their place at the tournament. He added that Scotland have a history of causing upsets and expect opponents to take them seriously. Notably, Scotland emerged victorious in both of their most recent encounters with West Indies, defeating them in a T20I in Hobart during the 2022 T20 World Cup, and again in their latest ODI clash in 2023 at Harare. "We've beaten West Indies twice very recently, so I don't see why we can't do it again. We're all very confident. We still massively believe that we should be here. We had a bad month in the summer [during the Europe Qualifier] but we are not second-guessing our invite. We've caused a few upsets in the past. We had a really good start against England in the last World Cup game too [in 2024], that was sadly rained off. I don't think teams will be taking us lightly at all," Mark Watt said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Scotland, who replaced Bangladesh after the latter refused to play the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, will play their first match of the tournament against West Indies at Kolkata's Eden Gardens on Saturday.
'Our job is to beat Test-playing nations'
He said Scotland's aim is to defeat Test-playing nations and inspire young players. "Our job is to go out there and beat Test-playing nations and inspire young kids to grow up and look at us on TV and say, 'I want to do that,'" Mark Watt said.
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