Kyle Coezter calls for Scotland to be brave against Zimbabwe in first T20 Series match

Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer and his squad are champing at the bit to get back to international cricket – and he wants his charges to be brave and show intent in in the first match of the Wolf777 T20 Series versus Zimbabwe at The Grange this afternoon.
Kyle Coetzer leads Scotland into action at The Grange.Kyle Coetzer leads Scotland into action at The Grange.
Kyle Coetzer leads Scotland into action at The Grange.

The much-anticipated clash gets underway at 2pm in Edinburgh and is the start of Scotland’s run in to the T20 World Cup in Oman and the UAE which gets underway in mid-October.

Between then and now the Scots will play ODIs in Oman against the hosts and Papua New Guinea as part of the qualification process for the 2023 50-over-a-side World Cup, but for now all focus is on three T20 matches with Zimbabwe.

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The three meetings today, on Friday and on Sunday will be the first international cricket matches Scotland have played since late 2019 and Coetzer, 37, said: “Just to pull the Scotland jersey on again after so long will be such a good feeling.

“Despite us not having played any international cricket for so long I actually believe that the guys are in great shape ahead of these games.

“Everyone has been training hard with the coaches and the backroom staff and we feel in a good place heading into what we hope will be a successful series.

“We have fond memories of playing Zimbabwe at The Grange because we beat them in an ODI there in 2017, but they came back and beat us in the second match then and we know they will be a tough opponent in the T20 format over the coming days.

“They have some good young players coming through, but we will be ready for that and we have a strong squad to pick from ourselves, in fact the strength in depth gives us a few headaches because it can be hard to select the XI that takes to the field.

“I want the team to be brave, go out there and play with intent and put in a good performance in this first game.”

Zimbabwe are 11th in the world in the T20 game as opposed to Scotland who are 14th while the former come into this week having recently lost a 3-2 to Ireland in this format and then drawn an ODI series with the same opponents 1-1.

Scotland squad to play Zimbabwe: Kyle Coetzer (C), Richie Berrington (VC), Dylan Budge, Matthew Cross, Ali Evans, Chris Greaves, Oli Hairs, Michael Leask, Gavin Main, Calum MacLeod, George Munsey, Adrian Neill, Safyaan Sharif, Chris Sole, Hamza Tahir, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt.