Saltires need to find winning ways on home soil

In which light, they badly need to find a means of winning at least one of the imminent brace of games against Surrey and Durham at the Citylets Grange on Sunday and Monday. Their Dutch counterparts have already tasted two successes and a nerve-shredding one-run loss to Middlesex. The Saltires, by contrast, are stuck at the bottom of their group.

From that perspective, one might have hoped that the Scottish selectors would clarify rather than confuse matters, in advance of the twin fixtures in Edinburgh. But instead, they have made a variety of decisions which are best, confusing, at worst, utterly perplexing.

In their defence, they had to release Ewan Chalmers, who is studying for his final exams at St Andrews University, while there are predictable recalls for the batting duo, Neil McCallum and Fraser Watts. The Saltires have also been boosted by the return from injury of their Australian professional, Luke Butterworth, and their squad is packed with performers who have the ability to thrill crowds if the sun shines this weekend.
 
But, on a less positive note, it is difficult to justify why the Scots have kept faith with Gregor Maiden as their wicket-keeper batsman; the experiment of using him as an opener clearly hasn’t paid dividends and it would have been more sensible to choose a specialist keeper such as Simon Smith and elevate Preston Mommsen up the order.

So too, the decision to omit Oliver Hairs from the 14-man party doesn’t smack of logic. This youngster has talent to burn and has been included in previous squads, without gaining an opportunity to show his worth. He would have been batting at his home ground and one suspects that he might have provided fireworks for Saltires fans. But, on the contrary, Hairs has slipped out of the picture, whereas his Grange colleague, Maiden, who has managed just 23 runs in four innings, retains his place. There might be a sound reason for this decision, but I would argue that one of the best ways of de-motivating any youngster is to keep leaving him on the sidelines on trips down to England, then telling him that he is surplus to requirements when his team come back to base.
 
Mind you, part of the bigger problem is that the Saltires are top-heavy with batsmen and all-rounders, while their bowling options are limited. Matthew Parker and Gordon Goudie took nine wickets between them against Warwickshire, and will presumably both start against Surrey, but there is much of a muchness between that pair and Butterworth, who is also likely to feature in the XI, with captain Gordon Drummond completing a pace quartet, which has thus far been effective only in fits and starts. On current form, it will be hard for Pete Steindl not to opt for Calum MacLeod, and add McCallum to the middle order, with Majid Haq the only specialist spinner in the ranks. But that creates an imbalance of its own, given that Josh Davey and Mommsen are automatic picks, on the basis of how impressively they have fared in previous outings for the Saltires.

In that light, the side which starts against Surrey won’t be far from this one: Fraser Watts, Gregor Maiden, Josh Davey, Richie Berrington, Neil McCallum, Preston Mommsen, Majid Haq, Luke Butterworth, Gordon Drummond, Matthew Parker and Gordon Goudie. They need Maiden in the ranks, despite his dearth of form, but it would be daft to bring back Watts and McCallum and not throw them into the fray. But, on the other hand, MacLeod has already struck a couple of superb centuries this season, has county experience, and should be encouraged as much as possible to realise his potential.
  
Ultimately, the major dilemma for the Saltires is that they have a skipper who hasn’t contributed a lot in their matches to date. Drummond is a whole-hearted player, one of life’s good guys, and he stepped into the breach in tough circumstances. But he has gone for nearly 150 runs at over six an over and taken only two wickets, so he and Maiden are the pair whose berths would be at risk, but for their specific nature of their roles.

It would have been better if the selectors had left the captaincy issue open and gone with the 11 best candidates on Sunday. But they haven’t and we have to trust that these problems don’t return to haunt them in their bid to end their losing streak.