ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

November 5, 2021

Kyle Coetzer

Dubai International Stadium

Scotland

Post Match Media Conference

India 89/2, Scotland 85

Q. The Super 12s haven't really gone as you would have liked. What are some of the positives you take back from this tournament?

KYLE COETZER: Look, the experience is everything for our group of players and our organisation. Obviously today's result didn't go the way we wanted, but we have to go through days like today to see the better days later on further down the road. It was very important for our guys to experience that, see the high class that was on show today from the Indian team. We were certainly not at the races ourselves, but I think they forced us to not be at the races with the skills that they put on show today, so that was high-class execution from India today.

Look, I'm still extremely proud of the guys, but we've got a lot of learning to do, and we have to go through days like this to improve.

Q. Obviously just coming up against a super power today, there wasn't really anything you could do about that?

KYLE COETZER: Yeah, you stack up the number of games some of those players in that team have played in comparison to what we have in T20 cricket as well as stacking them up against playing in these conditions and using the skills on show that they showed today, look, we were going to be -- we were always going to be up against it. They showed how to use the surface. They showed how to bowl, execute their yorkers. Their spinners had variation, plenty of mystery about some of their bowlers.

When you face stuff like that for the very first time, which we did today, it was always going to be hard. Not to say that I don't back every one of our players, because I really do. I think we've got a fantastic group of players, and we'll just go from strength to strength after this.

Q. Looking ahead to the next game then, obviously a bit of work to do, but how confident are you of having one final upset before you head home?

KYLE COETZER: Yeah, look, we're going to go into that game full of confidence as we possibly can. We took a few heavy punches today, that's for sure, and the guys will be hurting, but we need to pick ourselves up and be prepared to put on a show in our last game. It's our last opportunity for a little while to play a game of cricket together. It's been a good seven weeks or so as a group, and we're extremely proud of what we've achieved. A few doors left open that we didn't quite go through, I think, but that's for us to deal with when we go home, and we have to deal with that and be willing to improve.

We know where the bar is, like I keep saying, and that's where we need to get to. It's an eye opener at some stages, but I'm extremely proud of this group where we've got to and where we are at the moment and where we're going to go to.

Q. After a day like today will you go through and analyze it or will you just tell the guys to forget about it and just look straight ahead to the next game?

KYLE COETZER: I think sometimes you do want to try and forget about it, but I think there was so much high-class cricket on show today and some amazing skills on show today, which in a way gives us a heap of direction on how we can improve our games. I think T20 cricket is improving at an extremely fast rate, and we saw some amazing skills on show today.

I think for us we might take a day to just let it be and then let's sit down, reflect and see what we can learn from it, see what they're showing us, see where we can close that gap even further and see where we can go from there.

Q. With the final game on Sunday, is there kind of a temptation to maybe make a couple of changes and get guys that maybe haven't had any time out in the middle some opportunities?

KYLE COETZER: Yeah, look, of course you want to give as much opportunity to as many players as you possibly can, opportunities like this don't come around very often. But at the same time we're not in a position to be giving away caps when they're full international games.

It's a Catch 22 sometimes. You want to give exposure to people. We believe in everyone in our squad. But it's tough decisions every time you put a team out in the field, you want to be putting the best team that you can possibly put out there, and for any given day, and that will manage the conditions the best and be able to soak up the pressure from the opposition.

I think looking at it, it doesn't always look as if we've managed to do that here, but look, these conditions are tough. If you look at how many scores, sides have been bowled out for under 100, there's plenty of them already in this tournament, so it's clear to see that batting hasn't been the easiest skill, but look, we'll obviously go back and get the thinking, the leadership group together and have a think about what our next step before the next game.

Q. How do you see the years ahead for Scotland following your campaign in this year's T20 World Cup?

KYLE COETZER: I hope the years ahead are full of positive movement, not only for us but also in the game, to keep growing the game as much as possible. Look, it's so exciting to see various teams growing from strength to strength. You look at Oman, how much they've developed in the last couple of years, you look at Singapore, how they've developed.

For us in Cricket Scotland, it's brilliant to see how we've managed to get ourselves in the Super 12s, we've qualified for the next World Cup, so there's plenty to look forward to. But us as an organisation, like I said the other day, we have to be bold and brave on to try and keep moving this group of players and move the organisation on to the next level. We can't be happy with just playing a few Super 12 games, then just going home and going back to our systems we have there. We need to be brave and push that a little bit further. We need support there, and we also need to be bold and brave to find ways that we can support ourselves, too.

Look, we have to look at ourselves. We have to look at how we can improve, and that's not just in the playing side, that's every part of the organisation.

Exciting years ahead, I think. I'm really looking forward to what's to come.