Bridgetown (Barbados): Deprived of ideal preparation by rain, defending champions England will hope to get their act right straightaway when they face Scotland in their T20 World Cup opener here on Tuesday.
Phil Salt will look to continue his red-hot form of the Indian Premier League in the T20 showpiece, even as pacer Jofra Archer's return adds firepower to the English bowling attack.
Rain played spoilsport in the preceding four-match T20I series at home against Pakistan, but England will still enter the tournament as one of the strong contenders to lift the title for an unprecedented third time.
In what will be their first ever meeting against the Scots in the shortest format, the Jos Buttler-led England will be the overwhelming favourites to emerge winners at the Kensington Oval, which offered a two-paced wicket for the game between Namibia and Oman on Sunday evening.
Placed in Group B, England have traditional rivals Australia, Namibia and Oman for company besides Scotland. To reach the Super Eight stage, teams will have to finish in the top two of a group.
In white-ball cricket, it hasn't been smooth sailing for England since their five-wicket-victory over Pakistan in the final of the last T20 World Cup in Melbourne in 2022. A year after their success in Australia, Buttler's men endured a disastrous campaign at the ODI World Cup in India, finishing seventh after winning three and losing six of their nine matches including a painful defeat to Afghanistan.
Their poor run in the white-ball game continued with a series of defeats to West Indies in both the 50-over and 20-over format. In the rain-marred rubber against Pakistan recently, England regained some of their lost ground with a 2-0 series win.
