Five of Scotland's key players are not playing in this World Cup League 2 series
Scotland is a very strong opponent for Nepal. If we look at the past results, Nepal has been able to challenge Scotland in only a few matches. However, many games have had disappointing results. Nepal has a chance to dominate against Scotland when a new series of World Cup Cricket League-2 begins in Dundee on Monday.
The only reason for this is the Scotland team. Five key players from home team Scotland are not playing in this League 2 series. In the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, the Netherlands did not have seven key players, but the team qualified for the World Cup.
Like the Netherlands, Scotland has a good domestic structure. So even without a key player, Scotland have the potential to produce an impressive performance. Especially For Scottish players waiting for their chance to 'break through', this is a great opportunity to establish some others in the national team.
Brad Curry took 10 wickets in 3 games in League 2 of Scotland's recent tour of the Netherlands. In a match against the Netherlands, he took 4 wickets for 52 runs, his second best bowling performance in ODIs. This 26-year-old Devrehate fast bowler, who has taken 26 wickets in 12 matches, is not playing against Nepal and the Netherlands this year.
Currie is enjoying the white ball from English county team Sussex. Sussex is his bread and butter. That's why his choice ended up being Sussex rather than Scotland's national team. He is playing Twenty20 for Surrey's second team. As Scotland Cricket announces its squad for League 2, many players have been unavailable due to work and personal reasons, including county cricket commitments.
Not only Curry, Brad Wheel, Andrew Umid, Josh Dave, Michael Jones are also not in the Scotland squad due to contracts with the county team. Chris Soul, who has played for Biratnagar Kings in the Nepal Premier League, has withdrawn his name from the Scottish team citing personal reasons.
But in the presence of George Muncie, Brandon McMullen, captain Richie Berrington, Matthew Cross, Scotland's batting looks very strong. Exactly a month ago, in the last match against the Netherlands, McMullen and Barrington scored centuries while Muncie scored 80 off 56 balls.
Safyan Sharif, Mark Watt, Jack Jervis and Michael Lisk will handle Scotland's bowling front. Jervis made his 'debut' in ODI two years ago against Nepal in Kirtipur. Charlie Cassell is the leading bowler of the team. Last year, he took 7 wickets for 21 runs in 5.4 overs against Oman on his 'debut' in Dundee, which is the best bowling performance by any player on his ODI debut.
However, if they want to defeat Scotland, Nepal will have to make a big improvement in their own batting. Shaikh brothers Arif and Asif produced player-of-the-match performances as they defeated Scotland twice on foreign soil. The brothers were 'ducked out' in a practice match against Scotland 'A' on Saturday. Dipendrasingh Airey, who was recently re-promoted as vice-captain in the Nepali team, was the third batsman to be dismissed without opening an account with Scotland 'A'.
Despite that, Nepal scored 253 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 45 overs with the half-centuries of Bhim Sarki, captain Rohit Paudel and Gulshan Jha. Asif's opening pair Kushal Bhurtel has also been struggling to play big innings. He started well and was dismissed for 31 runs off 44 balls with 5 fours. In the first practice match against Scotland 'A', Nepal lost by 112 runs after being bowled out for 180 runs in 29.4 overs. Scotland 'A' scored 64 runs in 13 overs with the loss of 3 wickets. Before coming to Dundee, Nepal played 5 practice matches in England and Wales. Nepal, which won all the matches, was used to getting wet in British conditions.
Nepal will correct the mistakes they made in practice when they play the first match of this League 2 series against Scotland on Monday at Forthhill. Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Gulshan Jha, Rijn Dhakal have a challenge to sharpen Nepal's fast bowling. Spin has Sandeep Lamichhane and Lalit Rajvanshi. Since Dipendra's off-spin is also effective, Nepal will be able to play only one of the two main spinners in terms of seaming conditions.
Nepal's performance in ODIs and League 2 has been very poor lately. However, Nepal's performance with Scotland is exactly the opposite. Nepal has won 3 of the last 4 matches and the last match in Dallas was canceled due to rain. Nepal is about to play its first official match under the training of Stuart Law of Australia. He is betting to dominate the result from the first match. But he must also understand that playing against Scotland at home will not be easy.
