Scotland National Cricket Team vs Italy National Cricket Team Match: Italy won the toss and elected to bowl in their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 Group C match against Scotland at Eden Gardens on Monday, February 9, 2026. Italy are making their first-ever appearance in a World Cup main event, while Scotland entered the tournament as replacements for Bangladesh, who withdrew. The match will be the seventh game of the tournament and the first World Cup meeting between the two European sides.
Italy captain Wayne Madsen said his team was eager to make an impact in their World Cup debut. “We're going to have a bowl. It looks a really good wicket. Quick outfield. I think it's going to be hard to defend. We're really excited. There's obviously been a lot of build-up and preparation into it. And the moment's now for us. And for us as a team, it's about going out and enjoying it, expressing ourselves, and having a lot of fun. We haven't had the luxury of being together for a long time as a team. So the two weeks that we had in Dubai and the prep in Chennai before, we've built some confidence in the games that we've played. That's a clear ambition of the team (to win). We want to make our mark on this World Cup,” Madsen said after winning the toss.
Scotland captain Richie Berrington said batting first on the pitch looked promising. “We're quite happy with that (batting first). Looks like a really good surface. I think we saw the other day there's a lot of value for your shots on this ground, so hopefully we bat well in that first innings and put a big score on the board. It looked obviously great to get experience playing here the other day (against West Indies). Definitely a lot of positives for us to take out of that game. I think just taking that game slightly deeper and we would have been in a really strong position to get the right result. So, we can take the positives into this one, but obviously a few things we know we can improve on as well. Obviously we know that they're a really good team (on Italy). We expect it to be a good contest and it's definitely one we're looking forward to. But I think the focus for us is what we need to do well, our strengths of the team, and as I say, it's a good day to come out and show that with our performance. Just one change. We've got Brad Wheal coming in for Sufiyaan Sharif,” Berrington said.
Scotland vs Italy Playing XIs
Scotland (Playing XI): George Munsey, Michael Jones, Brandon McMullen, Richie Berrington(c), Tom Bruce, Matthew Cross(w), Mark Watt, Michael Leask, Oliver Davidson, Brad Wheal, Brad Currie
Italy (Playing XI): Justin Mosca, Anthony Mosca, JJ Smuts, Wayne Madsen(c), Harry Manenti, Ben Manenti, Gian Meade(w), Grant Stewart, Crishan Kalugamage, Ali Hasan, Thomas Draca
