T20 World Cup 2021 | Extremely proud of what we've achieved, says Kyle Coetzer
Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer was extremely proud of the way his team played and what they achieved at the T20 World Cup 2021. They have already secured a place in Round 1 of the next year's edition in Australia, and Coetzer believed that the team managed to inspire other associate nations.
Despite suffering five straight defeats in the Super 12s round of the T20 World Cup 2021, Scotland can walk back home with pride, believed skipper Kyle Coetzer. The team started their campaign with an impressive win over Bangladesh, and outplayed Oman and Papua New Guinea (PNG) later to storm into the next round.
While the results didn't quite go their way in Super 12s, they did have some passages of brilliance while experiencing challenges from tough opponents like Pakistan, India and New Zealand. Coetzer looked back at a fruitful campaign.
"I'm extremely proud of how we've played and what we've achieved," Coetzer said. "We've got an excellent group and the guys are willing to learn and are trying to learn as fast as they can. Being exposed to what we have been in the Super 12s is only going to make us stronger and make us realise some of the skills and efforts you have to put in to achieve it at this level.”
"Reaching the Super 12s was our immediate goal and we achieved that, but we need to learn as much as we possibly can because 12 months down the line, we've got another World Cup to go to. It's going to be in different conditions so we'll have to factor that in, but because we've experienced it, we now know what to expect.”
Coetzer further stated that the organisation should find a way to improve their ‘A’ team structures, which would help the team in developing for future.
"When we go home we have to be bold and brave, and make sure we push our whole organisation forward," he said. "We have to find a way to improve our 'A' team structures when we're at home and find a way to keep developing this team, this squad of players that we have. We've got a long journey to go on but it's an exciting one to be part of: who wouldn't want to be part of Cricket Scotland right now?"
As Scotland suffered 72-run defeat to Pakistan in Sharjah on Sunday, Coetzer believed that batting in the powerplay and tackling quality spin are the two major areas of improvement the team needs to work upon. He also asked for more bravery and smart execution from his bowlers.
"Not that we have never played here before - we have done quite a few times - but what we've realised is the importance of the powerplay," Coetzer said. "We haven't really nailed that yet with the bat. [We've learned] the importance of how to play high-quality spin bowling. I believe we're a very strong side and very capable of playing spin bowling but it's a different story when you come and play at Sharjah and some of these grounds out here, and the style in which the mystery spin is coming down. We have to go away and see how we can develop that.
"We need to be a little bit braver as a bowling unit, perhaps. We've noticed a number of the teams out here have actually been double-bluffing quite a lot, setting fields and bowling balls that don't necessarily match up - but what they do do is they nail and execute those deliveries extremely well.”
With the covid-19 norms and restrictions in place, teams have found it challenging to cope with the bio-bubble fatigue. Coetzer however, ruled that factor out after his team's five straight defeats.
"I wouldn't like to say that. We've prepared well. We think we're playing pretty decent cricket but the standard has certainly gone up when we hit the Super 12 stage and we had to find a way to adapt as quickly as we possibly could. Playing cricket out in the UAE isn't easy and we've learnt a lot from this occasion,” he said.
"We have been away from home for a little while but I wouldn't like to use that as an excuse. We've got to look at ourselves and see where we can continue to improve. We've shown signs of that: look at Richie Berrington's innings against a fine Pakistan attack. I thought he played outstandingly well and it may well go under the radar because we lost but it was a great knock.”
Coetzer hoped that his team inspired other associate nations and young cricketers in Scotland with their performance.
"Hopefully from the seven weeks or so we've managed to inspire as many associate nations as we possibly can and hopefully inspire young cricketers back in Scotland," he said.
"That's why we're here: we get to try and give it all for our country and be able to inspire as many people as we possibly can. That's how I started many years ago, watching Scotland play in the World Cup and hopefully there'll be a few more boys and girls coming through that will want to play cricket for their country.”
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