Gordon Drummond, the Scotland captain, says his side's attitude can help them return to the world stage. Scotland haven't featured in an ICC event since the 2009 World Twenty20 in England and are eager to get their ambitions back on track.

Scotland have revamped their squad since 2009 and now have a much younger crop for the World T20 qualifiers, which start on March 13 in the UAE. This new team have the desire to get back into a major competition.

"Since 2009 we have had a big change in playing personnel," Drummond said. "The coaching staff has worked hard to create an honest, positive and hard-working ethos among the squad, to build on the ability and talent that was already there. The current squad are now more experienced and have been involved in tournaments and big games over the last few years, which will give us confidence going in to the tournament.

"We are a team that has a never-say-die attitude and always believe we can win from anywhere. We have a good balance of power hitters, touch players, quality spinners, accurate seamers and a dynamic fielding unit and we feel this is what is needed to be successful."

Scotland got together for a six-week training camp in Edinburgh and travelled to the Middle East for an Intercontinental Cup match against the UAE before travelling to Colombo for another preparation camp. "We've had a mixture of skills, training, fitness sessions and matches against state teams, Canada and Sri Lanka A. The preparations have been good, particularly in Colombo where the conditions and opponents have been challenging; this will give the squad confidence going into a tough schedule in the qualifiers."

Drummond's side are up against Ireland, Kenya, Namibia, Uganda, Oman, Italy and USA in group B and he believes it will be a very close-fought race for qualification for the knockout phase. "All the teams in the group are dangerous and in the shorter format of the game are capable of beating each other," he said. "Luckily for us we have had previous experience of playing against every opposition in our group.

"Qualification will give the squad an opportunity to play in an event against the best teams at a global event and it would mean the players can put their skills to the test against the best players in the world."

Scotland begin their campaign against Kenya in Dubai.