Watt hopes happy memories against WI can spur Scotland's unexpected campaign to life

Scotland spinner Mark Watt was last in India nearly a decade ago, for the 2016 T20 World Cup. Everything then, he says, "flew past really quickly." Watt is determined it will be different this time.

It wasn't too long ago that Scotland's players were coming to terms with not making this edition of the tournament, after one bad week of cricket at the Europe Qualifier, and preparing to watch the competition from their couches. Handed a second chance because of Bangladesh's withdrawal, they want to savour every moment while showing they haven't just been given a spot just because the competition needed a 20th team.

"To wrap it all in one word would just be excitement," Watt, 29, said on the eve of Scotland's opening game against West Indies in Kolkata. "It's probably all come together in the past 10 days."

The unusual road to the World Cup, though, does not reflect the wider arc of Scotland's rise or the threat they believe they pose. Scotland beat West Indies in Hobart the last time they met in T20Is, during the 2022 T20 World Cup. In 2023, their last meeting in ODIs, it was Scotland again who were winners in Harare.

Those results sit at the heart of Scotland's belief that their World Cup entry is not an act of charity or mere fortune. Watt was careful to acknowledge the circumstances, but firm in pushing back against the idea that Scotland do not deserve to be here. Besides, Scotland are also ranked higher than both Nepal and Italy, their other two opponents in Group C apart from West Indies and England.

"We've beaten West Indies twice very recently, so I don't see why we can't do it again," Watt said. "We're all very confident. We still massively believe that we should be here. We had a bad month in the summer [during the Europe Qualifier] but we are not second-guessing our invite.

"We've caused a few upsets in the past. We had a really good start against England in the last World Cup game too [in 2024], that was sadly rained off. I don't think teams will be taking us lightly at all."

If anything, the late addition of Scotland may have sent other teams scrambling to come up with a plan against them. With little recent footage of some of the younger players available, Watt joked that opposition analysts might have to dig deep: "It'd be quite funny thinking about the England analysis team trying to find club cricket games of some of our youngsters."

Conditions and the allotment of venues could also work to Scotland's advantage. Bangladesh were supposed to play their first three games at Eden Gardens, which can be helpful to the seamers sometimes, and with invitation now extended to Scotland, Watt felt the ground was quite similar to his home venue in Edinburgh. Even Mumbai, where Scotland meet Nepal on February 17, is usually pace-friendly.

"I think Kolkata is just a really good cricket wicket," Watt said. "I spoke to a few of the Afghan players, like [Mohammad] Nabi and Rashid Khan, about what's the best way to bowl here. They did say it's a pretty flat wicket.

"I think it could be quite similar to playing at the Grange back home. It's a good wicket, a good outfield, so you have to be quite inventive with the way that you bowl. You can't bowl 24 deliveries the exact same because you'll get hit out of the park."

Beyond this tournament, Watt acknowledged that staying involved in global tournaments remains central to the growth of the game back in Scotland, but for the short term he just wants to soak it all in, as a T20 World Cup in a cricket-crazy country doesn't come every year.

"Our job is to go out there and beat Test-playing nations and inspire young kids to grow up and look at us on TV and say, 'I want to do that,'" he said. "People are starting to see cricket as a potential job.

"But I'm really grateful to be playing at another World Cup in India, trying to get them all to really take it all in. Even the little annoying things like flying, like travel days, it's still a great experience. All the chaos and [going through] the airports and stuff like that, it's all amazing.

"So I'm just trying to pass my words of wisdom on to the younger players on the team and just make sure that we all really, really enjoy this great opportunity we have."