KOLKATA: Scotland spinner Mark Watt said on Friday they were confident of proving they belong at the T20 World Cup, despite only being an eleventh-hour replacement for Bangladesh.

The Scots failed originally to qualify for the tournament in India and Sri Lanka, but their late call-up will see them face two-time winners the West Indies in Kolkata on Saturday after having only a few days to prepare.

Bangladesh refused to play in India, citing security concerns, and were replaced by the International Cricket Council with Scotland being named as replacement less than two weeks ago.

After a frantic dash to India they will also face England, Italy and Nepal in Group ‘C’.

And the Richie Berrington-captained team are determined to make the most of the opportunity.

“I mean, firstly, we’re very sympathetic towards Bangladeshi players, but we still massively believe that we should be here,” veteran left-armer Watt told reporters.

“We believe that we can beat tea­ms higher ranked than us. So there’s no second guess in our invite into this tournament. We’re all ready to go.”

Scotland will make their fifth consecutive appearance at the T20 World Cup with their best showing in 2021 when they reached the Super 12 stage.

The Scots stunned the West Indies in the 2022 edition and Watt said they can do it again at Eden Gardens.

“We’re definitely going out there to win,” the 29-year-old said. “We’ve beaten them twice very recently, so I don’t see why we can’t do it again. We’re very confident.”

Watt said they had received huge support after being parachuted into the tournament.

“To be honest, if I had to wrap it all up in one word, it’d just be excitement,” he said of the mood in the team camp.

“I mean, how more excited could they be? They were sitting in their house doing nothing 10 days ago and now they’re in India at a World Cup.”

Watt added that being fresh and rested could work in Scotland’s favour.

“You know, we’ve had a great week here in India and sometimes actually having a break from the game is a good thing,” said Watt.

“Sometimes you can overthink too much about, oh, we’re playing against England, we’re playing against West Indies.” Berrington said it had been a whirlwind couple of weeks.

“Obviously it has been unique circumstances,” Berrington told reporters at the captains’ press conference in Mumbai.

“There has been a quick turnaround for us. Our preparations probably looked slightly different to some of the other teams. But I think we have been presen­ted with a great opportunity.”

Schedule of group stage matches

Feb 7:

Pakistan v Netherlands (Colombo)

Scotland v West Indies (Kolkata)

India v USA (Mumbai)

Feb 8:

Afghanistan v New Zealand (Chennai)

England v Nepal (Mumbai)

Sri Lanka v Ireland (Colombo)

Feb 9:

Italy v Scotland (Kolkata)

Oman v Zimbabwe (Colombo)

Canada v South Africa (Ahmedabad)

Feb 10:

Namibia v Netherlands (Delhi)

New Zealand v UAE (Chennai)

Pakistan v USA (Colombo)

Feb 11:

Afghanistan v South Africa (Ahmedabad)

Australia v Ireland (Colombo)

England v West Indies (Mumbai)

Feb 12:

Sri Lanka v Oman (Pallekele)

Italy v Nepal (Mumbai)

India v Namibia (Delhi)

Feb 13:

Australia v Zimbabwe (Colombo)

Canada v UAE (Delhi)

Netherlands v USA (Chennai)

Feb 14:

Ireland v Oman (Colombo)

England v Scotland (Kolkata)

New Zealand v South Africa (Ahmedabad)

Feb 15:

Nepal v West Indies (Mumbai)

Namibia v USA (Chennai)

Pakistan v India (Colombo)

Feb 16:

Afghanistan v UAE (Delhi)

England v Italy (Kolkata)

Australia v Sri Lanka (Pallekele)

Feb 17:

Canada v New Zealand (Chennai)

Ireland v Zimbabwe (Pallekele)

Nepal v Scotland (Mumbai)

Feb 18:

South Africa v UAE (Delhi)

Pakistan v Namibia (Colombo)

India v Netherlands (Ahmedabad)

Feb 19:

Italy v West Indies (Kolkata)

Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe (Colombo)

Afghanistan v Canada (Chennai)

Feb 20:

Australia v Oman (Pallekele)

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2026