Three Scottish players to watch out for in the Pakistan-Scotland T20Is

In what was a monumental weekend for the underdog in the cricketing fraternity, there were plenty of upsets with West Indies stalling Sri Lanka's fourth innings juggernaut to dismiss their side 226 runs short of the target, Bangladesh women stunned their Indian counterparts in a final-ball win to lift the Women's T20 Asia Cup, but in the greatest mismatched pair of them all, Scotland beat the ICC number one ranked ODI side England in front of a raucous home crowd at The Grange.

Scotland have now beaten three Test nations in the span of one year and marginally missed out on a World Cup berth with the lack of DRS in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers and unfavorable meteorological alignments catching them just short of history, but on Sunday they made amends by smashing 6/371, the highest score by an associate nation, against a clueless English bowling. Clearly, they are vying for much more than an occasional upset win. Prior to their T20 tri-series against the Netherlands and rivals Ireland, they have two T20 fixtures against the top-ranked side in the format, Pakistan.

The Scots will be inspired to put up another performance to impose their position with even more authority on world cricket, and what better chance to do it on the back of their greatest moment in international cricket with the whole nation backing them to persist with their exploits. Ahead of their potentially historic series against Pakistan, we look at three players who can shock the in-form men in green with some Saltire magic.

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Calum MacLeod

Fresh from the best knock of his life, MacLeod will look to continue his rich vein of form, going all the way back to the World Cup Qualifiers where he smashed an unbeaten 157 against the much dreaded Afghan bowling, starring Rashid Khan. He has a tendency to go for the big score once he has his eye in.

A top-order batsman, he will eye the pace-heavy Pakistani bowling if he has a crack against them in the field restriction phase as he likes to maneuver the ball around the field with his nifty horizontal movements on the crease. While his numbers in the format are underwhelming, he will be keen to capitalize on confidence rather than history. His handy off-spin bowling can be an excellent asset if coupled with the left-arm spin of Mark Watt.

Kyle Coetzer

There is no doubting the talents of Scotland's seasoned campaigner, Coetzer has repeatedly displayed the knack of not being intimidated by the stature of the oppositions. After taking over the captaincy from Preston Mommsen, Coetzer has been a great Scottish representative, both on and off the field, his sparkling century against Bangladesh in the ICC World Cup 2015 and relentless voicing for the cause of the associate nations being the respective testaments.

He was in fine nick against the potent English seamers in the one-off ODI and carved a sparkling 58 at the top of the order to set things up in the best possible fashion. He will be instrumental in what will be a difficult upcoming assignment given that Pakistan have convincingly won all of their last three T20 series, both as a leader to keep his side level-headed even when things do not seem to go their way and as a batsman to start things off well and hopefully bat deep into the innings.

Mark Watt

In a match where all bowlers irrespective of their past credentials were given a hiding and the average run rate of the match was 7.45, Watt went at just 5.5 runs an over and picked the wickets of Jason Roy and Sam Billings before they constructed prolonged innings, and then when Moeen Ali threatened to take the game away in England's favour, Watt came to the rescue again making him hit against the angle of the ball straight down the throat of long-on.

21-year-old Watt's wily left-arm spin can be the difference between the two sides, as he hits the perfect middle ground between restricting the flow of runs and enticing batsmen into picking the fielders. He has excellent numbers in the format for an orthodox finger spinner, picking a wicket every 18 balls and averaging a respectable 23 with the ball, and has achieved the rare feat of picking five wickets in an innings despite just 18 games against his name.