Gavin Hamilton wants Scotland to adopt an Australian attitude

Mere days ago, after a brace of ten-wicket warm-up defeats by Kenya, the captain conceded that the odds felt "sky high" against his young team reaching the finals in the West Indies in April, but he was elated by the way they reversed the tide in a third joust with the Kenyans in the tournament venue of Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

In a group containing unpredictable, unrefined and fearless opponents in the USA and Afghanistan – as well as perennial pace-setters Ireland – Hamilton believes the key to Scotland emerging intact from the tournament lies in the time-honoured tactic of playing to their strengths. Ricky Ponting's Australians, since their place on world cricket's throne became threatened, have made an art form of it.

"We're not at Australia's level but I want to go about this the way they do – they have powerful and talented cricketers coming at them and they just do everything right," said Hamilton. "They stick to the basics, they field well, they squeeze – they don't stand out as flash players but they do everything right.

"I want everyone to be disciplined, keep everything very basic and just do what they do best. And if we can get four or five players firing on the day, we won't be far away."

Eleven months ago the Scots, led by Ryan Watson, failed utterly to cope with the burden of expectation when they fell short in South Africa of qualifying for the 2011 World Cup, losing twice to tomorrow's opponents Afghanistan at the end of a dreadful ordeal.

However, reinvigorated by the form of Durham player Kyle Coetzer (with bat and ball), Richie Berrington and Jan Stander, the old cracks in team morale have been poly-filled and Hamilton wants his troops to bellow out a statement that 2010 will be the year their waning fortunes turn the corner. "It's like South Africa last year – a tournament in February or March will set the tone for the year," said the left-hander, who is likely to bat No 3 or No 4 today against the USA in Abu Dhabi.

"Last year was a strange year because we had quite a few outgoings, but there are no excuses this year. We need to find ourselves, find our team and find our balance and what direction we want to go in."

Failure to reach the weekend's Super Four stage and win one of two places in the finals in April will leave Scotland waiting until 2012 for their next crack at the elite. Reaching the West Indies would bring an estimated 125,000 into the Cricket Scotland coffers and the players would receive a portion of that, but chief executive Roddy Smith went to extensive lengths to remove any pressure from Hamilton's shoulders. "The only incentive will be simply to qualify for this tournament, and they will do everything they can to get there but I think it will be an absolute lottery," said Smith. "It's basically a sprint with five penalty shoot-outs on the back of each other, and you would be a brave man to try and predict which two teams will come out on top. You can't discount the UAE and the USA, who could well win games, and within the top six you couldn't pick out two to go through. It will go down to who out of the big players perform."

Probable Scotland team: K Coetzer, F Watts, N Poonia, G Hamilton (c), R Watson, J Stander, R Berrington, M Haq, S Smith, G Drummond, D Nel.