“IT’S A REALLY EXCITING OPPORTUNITY.” – Cricket Scotland

Scotland Vice-Captain Matthew Cross is looking forward to the challenge ahead of him and his fellow Scots this afternoon, as they prepare to face World Champions England for the first time since 2018.

The meeting in Bridgetown, Barbados, in front of what is expected to be a large and lively crowd, kicks-off both sides World Cup adventures, and will be the first-ever meeting in T20 cricket between the two neighbours.

Matthew Cross said: I think it’s a really exciting opportunity for us as an associate nation to play England, although we’re very close we don’t seem to play each other often, but we’ve got great memories from the last time we played them, so to get to play them at a World Cup is always special.”

Of course, every cricket fan in Scotland will remember that last meeting in Grange in 2018, and memories of that day will be reinforced ahead of this meeting.

Reflecting on that day, Cross continued: I think for me the best thing about the whole day was that it was just such a good day; the sun was out in Scotland, it was a full house, and the most pleasing thing for me was England played a really good game of cricket, and I think that sometimes gets lost because we won, but I think they were exceptional on the day as well.

“I can’t say we’ve spoken about it, but it is in the back of the memory that we’ve done this before, that we’ve beaten teams like England, so it’s a confidence booster, but ultimately it will mean nothing tomorrow.”

“I think with T20 cricket, everybody’s got to be there, got to be at it, but it takes one or two individuals to have their best day, and I think that’s the message we send; expect to have your best day, and I think if you have your best day we’re going to be pretty close to winning the game.”

Scotland and England will be playing on the same pitch that the group’s opening game, between Namibia and Oman was played on, which saw both sides reach only 109, before Namibia won via a super over.

“I think it’s going to be who can adapt the quickest. It’s a day game, so the pitch will play slightly differently [than under lights] I’m sure. It will just be about who can adapt the quickest, and find the best way to score runs. It might be a bit more attritional cricket, in terms of it looked a bit lower and slower, but we’ve been preparing for that.”

For Scotland, qualification for the Super 8s stage would represent a huge step forward, as it would come at the expense of either England or Australia, two of the favourites for the title – but the message to the squad is simple.

“We’ve got four games and we’ve got to win four games, there’s nothing too complicated about it. We’ve beaten three of the four teams before and that’s probably enough to take you through, so we’ll be taking each day as it comes, because you’ve got to earn the right to win these games.”

Scotland face England in their first game of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at 15:30 BST on Tuesday June 4, live on Sky Sports Main Event.