Jonathan Trott explains how Scotland can have a successful T20 World Cup

Scotland’s batting line-up is full of “match winners” heading into the T20 World Cup which begins on Sunday, but it is all-round team performances that are going to be needed if the squad is to make progress in the competition.

Former England player and current Scotland batting consultant Jonathan Trott (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

That is the view of former England batter Jonathan Trott who is working with Shane Burger’s men as a specialist batting coach ahead of the showpiece event in the UAE and Oman.

Players like George Munsey, Matthew Cross, Richie Berrington, Michael Leask and others can light things up with the bat, but three times Ashes winner Trott believes that in the shortened format of the game a team has to be “switched on” for the full 40 overs.

“We have some really good players in this Scotland squad, the batting line-up is full of match winners, but T20 matches can ebb and flow so much that it can’t be left to one player to perform well, the whole XI has to play well to get good results,” Trott, 40, said.

“In terms of the batters, they are a powerful bunch of lads, it is going to be about who can deal with the pressure and not let the occasion get a hold of the emotions when the World Cup starts.

“When I first came in to work with the group prior to the Zimbabwe series in Edinburgh last month you could see that the guys had not played for a long time at the highest level.

“However, the continuity of training and being able to play games since then has helped the guys iron out a few things and things are looking much more natural now, they are gelling well together.

“I have been spending a lot of time with the batters and have been able to get up close and personal with them and that has been really good.

“There is a lot of experience in the group, particularly on the batting side, so they have the focus and experience to be able to do well.”

Scotland’s final warm-up game takes place today [Thursday] in Dubai versus Namibia before the first World Cup match against Bangladesh in Oman on Sunday.

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