WT20Q team preview: Scotland

OverviewGoing into the qualifier with the competition's youngest captain, 20-year old Kathryn Bryce, Scotland are looking to secure a place at the ICC Women's World T20 for the first time in their history.Scotland reached this tournament having won the ICC Europe/ Americas Qualifiers last year and are hoping to better their fourth-place finish at this stage three years ago. They have the belief that they can progress and must harness their combination of relatively inexperienced players with long-standing veterans to propel them through to their first major ICC tournament.

Scotland will hope that the dynamic and highly talented sisters Kathryn and Sarah Bryce can inspire the side, and Kathryn's fresh, youthful approach to captaincy is an exciting aspect of the team. Her 18-year old sister has been excellent with the bat in domestic T20s this year, averaging just over 40.

Having taken a heavy beating at the hands of Bangladesh in their final warm-up game when they were dismissed for 47, Scotland will need to draw from the positives in their domestic campaign to build confidence leading into these matches. Their T20 season has only recently concluded so the players should be in the right mindset to tackle these qualifiers to the best of their ability. Scotland missed out on promotion to Division One of the English domestic Women's Twenty20 Cup, but have won seven out of their last eight ECB County Championship fixtures.

Player to watch out for

“I’m massively proud to be captaining Scotland,” said the skipper Kathryn Bryce. “I think it’s quite difficult sometimes to realise that it’s actually happening and I’ll probably look back on it in 10 years’ time and think it was an incredible thing to be able to do. To go out there onto the field and lead your country, it’s a great opportunity."

She outlines her side's particular excitement to be playing Ireland in the qualifiers.

“We’re feeling excited about that match. We played them last summer and they beat us in those games but I think we’ve developed a lot as a T20 team over the last year so I think it will be a really exciting opportunity for us. We’re going to go out there and show that we’ve developed over the last year and hopefully we can come out with a win.”

History in the WT20An appearance in the tournament proper remains elusive but Scotland have reached previous qualifying tournaments in Thailand and Sri Lanka. Conditions in the Netherlands might be more suited to them than those past experiences given the similarity with the British climate.

Schedule7 July: v Uganda8 July: v Ireland
10 July: v Thailand

**Squad:**Abbi Aitken, Kristie Gordon, Samantha Haggo, Lorna Jack, Kathryn Bryce (c), Abtaha Maqsood, Katie McGill, Elizabeth Priddle, Ollie Rae, Sarah Bryce, Rachel Scholes, Priyanaz Chatterjji