SCOTLAND UNDER 19s LOOKING FORWARD TO HOME 'PRESSURE' IN QUALIFIERS

Scotland Men's Under 19s Captain Thomas Knight is looking forward to the 'pressure' that a World Cup Qualifier on home soil brings.

 

The Scots get their qualifying campaign underway on Thursday against Sweden at Arbroath United Cricket Club - but for Knight, it's the two games at his home club Forfarshire that really get the juices flowing.

 

“We’ve seen the tents going up at Forfarshire over the last week or so and it’s started to get really exciting. To play on your home ground in such a high-profile event is not an opportunity you get often, so I’m really looking forward to it.

 

“It does come with that little bit of pressure, but we don’t look at it as negative pressure. We’ll be able to look around the ground and see our friends and family, and people supporting us, which will be a brilliant feeling during games, and will give us that little extra boost."

 

 

Scotland's preparation has seen them playing against county opposition, as well as travelling over to Ireland to face their Under 19s counterparts - losing the three-match series 2-1.

 

“We’ve been together as a group for the last couple of years through the different age groups, and it’s been a great group to be involved with from the start, and it still is now – everyone makes my job as captain pretty easy," continued Knight.

 

“We’ve had a lot of cricket this year - even before we came together, we had lots of cricket as a wider squad, which gave us plenty of opportunity to find what we believe to be the best 14 to take into this qualifier.

 

“Since the squad has been named, we’ve played loads of cricket and spent a lot of time together, ironing out where everyone fits into the squad and what our roles are.

 

"We got through to the quarter-finals of the ECB County Cup, which as well as any Scotland Under 19s team has done in that competition, which has been excellent preparation against high quality opposition going into the qualifier."

 

Scotland will be joined at the qualifier by Denmark, Guernsey, Jersey, the Netherlands and Sweden, with one spot at the 2026 U19 Men's Cricket World Cup up for grabs.

 

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