Sports Mole previews Tuesday’s T20 World Cup match between England and Scotland which is set to take place at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown.
England will begin the defence of their T20 World Cup trophy when they face Scotland at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.
To reach the Super Eight stage, England and Scotland will have to finish in the top two of a group which contains Australia, Namibia and Oman.
England are preparing to play their first match at the T20 World Cup since they beat Pakistan by five wickets in the 2022 final at the MCG.
A year after their success in Australia, Jos Buttler‘s men experienced a woeful campaign at the 50-over World Cup in India, finishing in seventh place after winning three and losing six of their nine matches.
Their desperate fortunes in the white-ball game continued with a series of defeats to West Indies in both the 50-over and 20-over format.
After experiencing a disappointing winter, England’s white-ball squad restored some much-needed confidence with a 2-0 win in the recent rain-affected T20 series against Pakistan.
They will now turn their focus to the main competition and the opening game against Scotland at the Kensington Oval – the ground where Paul Collingwood‘s men achieved a seven-wicket triumph against Australia to lift England’s first T20 World Cup in 2010.
Fourteen years later, England will have aspirations of going deep into the tournament after reaching the semi-finals at each of the last three T20 World Cups, but before they look too far ahead, they will focus on getting off to a winning start against Scotland.
Scotland are preparing to make a third consecutive T20 World Cup appearance after breezing through the European section of qualifying.
They won all six of their qualifiers to finish top of the standings to punch their ticket to the West Indies and the USA alongside Ireland.
Scotland’s main objective would have been to secure qualification, but the shorter format of international cricket throws up more uncertainty and the chance to pull off a surprise or two.
They know that they will most likely have to beat at least one of England or Australia to have any hope of progressing to the Super Eight stage.
Scotland have never previously played England in a competitive T20 game, but they will have fond memories from the last time that they faced off in a 50-over match in 2018 when Calum MacLeod hit an unbeaten 140 to help his country clinch a memorable six-run victory.
The associate nation warmed up for the tournament with a losing final appearance in a tri-series with Ireland and the Netherlands, before they travelled to the Caribbean for an abandoned game against Uganda and a 55-run defeat against Afghanistan.
England’s top order contains plenty of six-hitting power courtesy of Buttler, Phil Salt, Will Jacks and Jonny Bairstow.
Harry Brook will provide the firepower in the middle order, while Sam Curran could have an important role to play with both the bat and ball after being named as player of the tournament at the 2022 T20 World Cup.
The experienced Adil Rashid leads England’s spin options, boasting a bowling average of 25 in 106 international T20 matches.
Jofra Archer is one of the standout names in the pace department, having returned to fitness following a torrid time with injuries.
However, Archer will not be the only England player delivering rockets, with Mark Wood ready to unleash his express pace in the tournament opener.
As for Scotland, the pressure of facing Archer and Wood first up will likely fall on the shoulders of George Munsey and Charlie Tear.
Munsey was his country’s top scorer at the 2022 T2O World Cup after scoring 121 runs across his three innings in Australia.
At the age of 37, skipper Richie Berrington will look to provide some solidity at number four, while his captaincy will be crucial if Scotland are to negate England’s explosive batting lineup.
Sussex’s Brad Currie and Hampshire’s Brad Wheal will form part of the pace department, while Chris Greaves and Mark Watt represent the two main spin options.
England squad: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt (wk), Reece Topley, Mark Wood
Scotland squad: Richie Berrington (c), Matthew Cross (wk), Brad Currie, Chris Greaves, Oli Hairs, Jack Jarvis, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Brandon McMullen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Chris Sole, Charlie Tear (wk), Mark Watt, Brad Wheal
England will enter Tuesday’s match as the overwhelming favourites to get off to a winning start, and we think that they will ultimately prove to be strong for Scotland thanks to their batting firepower and the lightning pace of Archer and Wood, which has the potential to blow the Scottish top order away.
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