Scots facing seven games in eight days for T20 bid

The Scots have been handed a gruelling schedule of seven games in eight days during the 16-team tournament in the desert heat of Dubai.

They must finish in the top two just to keep their hopes of reaching the global finals alive and could then face a further two matches before securing one of the two places on offer in Sri Lanka next September.

“It is going to be fast and furious and every game will be tough The guys will be putting in a lot of hard graft over the next two months because we will need to be fit and robust if we are to get through,” said Steindl.

The Saltires open their qualifying campaign against Kenya at Dubai’s Global Cricket Academy on 13 March and tackle Namibia the following day.

Matches against little-known Uganda and Oman follow before they have a rest day to prepare for a potential crunch clash against qualification favourites Ireland. Scotland complete their Group B schedule with matches against Italy and dark horses USA.

The group winners will feature in the first qualifying final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on 22 March with the victor sealing a place in the World Twenty20 from 18 September to 7 October.

The sides who finish second will face the teams finishing third in the opposing group and the two winners will progress to the preliminary final on 23 March. The winner of that game will then face the losing side from the first qualifying final on 24 March. The winners of the two qualifying finals will then face each other that evening.

The teams in Group A are Afghanistan, Netherlands, Canada, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Denmark and Nepal.

Steindl added: “There are no easy games in T20 and there are a lot of dangerous teams in our group. Teams like Oman and Italy are improving all the time and we needed a super-over to beat Uganda when we met them in Kenya last year.”

Steindl will name his squad for the trip next month.