Northamptonshire all-rounder Tom Sole believes his time with the Scottish national team has put him in a good place for the rest of the season at Wantage Road.
Sole has spent a fair bit of time with the Scottish squad so far this year and got his first chance to impress the new head coach.
“I went to La Manga at the end of March and had a camp with the team and new coach Shane Burger. I had a week with them in the A side, playing against Durham 2s and Gloucester and a couple of T20s as well, I did pretty well and was lucky enough to be selected for the recent internationals.” Sole said.
It was the second time Sole had made the trip to Spain this year, with Northamptonshire hosting their pre-season tour in the same venue. When it comes to differences, Sole said it was a totally different atmosphere with the national side.
“Because Scotland aren’t together a whole lot, when we do come together for a game or a training block it’s quite intense. We did a lot of batting and skill work and didn’t really have a day off. It was all cricket focussed rather than any kind strength or conditioning focus like we had with Northants. It was purely skills to let the new coach see what we were capable of, where we could improve and what he has to work with.” he said.
Sole has played 7 One Day Internationals for Scotland with two of them earlier this month against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. While he was happy with his performances, Sole believes there’s more to take away from representing his country.
“For me, it’s about knowing where I stand in terms of my ability at the highest level. Playing against some of the best in the world and some of the biggest up and comers in the world in a team like Afghanistan. It gives me a chance to figure out my game a bit more and learn from my performances, and the fact I was able to do alright, I was quite happy.” he said.
Scotland missed out on a place at the World Cup in dramatic fashion, losing by just 5 runs in a rain affected World Cup Qualifier in March of last year, a match Tom Sole was involved in. When asked what’s next, his goal was pretty clear.
“Get to the next world cup and qualify for the two T20 World Cups coming up. We want to play on the biggest stage. That’s a way off though, I have to think about the here and now for Northamptonshire too, I can’t think too far ahead.”