Scotland batter Darcey Carter says regular matches against stronger opposition are crucial for the team’s development after Scotland impressed despite suffering narrow defeats against some of the biggest teams at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026.

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Darcey Carter believes Scotland’s encouraging performances at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 have highlighted the need for more opportunities against higher-ranked teams as they continue their rise on the international stage.

The Scotland batter has emerged as one of the standout performers of the tournament, briefly becoming the leading run-scorer and even moving ahead of India’s Smriti Mandhana in the run charts after a series of impressive knocks. However, Carter admitted that personal milestones mean little if they do not help the team secure victories.

“It’s great to be able to score runs, but at the end of the day, if the team’s not winning, those runs are almost irrelevant for me personally,” Carter said after Scotland’s six-wicket defeat to New Zealand in Bristol. “Maybe I could do a bit more to help the team get over the line, but it’s good to be in good form.”

Carter’s half-centuries against West Indies and New Zealand came in losing causes, but her performances have underlined Scotland’s growing depth beyond their established stars, Kathryn Bryce and Sarah Bryce. With the Bryce sisters unable to make significant contributions in those matches, Carter stepped up to keep Scotland competitive against elite opposition.

Reflecting on her own journey, Carter said she was pleased to have made a stronger impact than she did during Scotland’s maiden Women’s T20 World Cup appearance in 2024, when she managed just 19 runs across four innings.

“I’m quite pleased that I’ve managed to put on some good scores. The last time I was here, I probably didn’t get as many runs as I would have liked at the last World Cup,” she said. “Taking ownership for this team and trying to put us in the best positions possible is really what matters to me most.”

Scotland’s progress since that difficult 2024 campaign has been evident throughout this tournament. After losing all four matches in their debut World Cup appearance, they registered their first-ever World Cup win by defeating Ireland and pushed both defending champions New Zealand and West Indies deep into closely contested matches.

The team also showed resilience against England, reinforcing the belief that they are becoming increasingly competitive against Full Member nations.

“We’re quite proud of how we have held ourselves and how we’re really giving good competition to these big teams,” Carter said. “There’s probably a bit of disappointment that we’ve maybe not finished the games as well as we would have liked. But to be able to set the games up in that position is probably something we didn’t do when we played last time.”

Scotland’s improvement has been built on a busy schedule over the past two years. The side has played 25 matches across various tournaments and series, including competitions in Thailand and Nepal, as well as a home tri-series before the World Cup, winning 17 of those games.

However, Carter believes the next stage of development requires more exposure to top-ranked international teams.

“We don’t play as much cricket as we would like,” she said. “Coming into these tournaments, it’s quite difficult to go straight up against the best opposition without much practice against higher-ranked teams.”

She added that regular fixtures against stronger nations would help Scotland handle pressure situations better and accelerate the team’s growth.

“Our main goal would probably be to get more cricket against better-ranked teams and gain more experience. Then, when we come onto the world stage where there’s lots of pressure, we can deal with that a bit better.”

While most members of Scotland’s squad are involved in England’s domestic cricket structure, Carter believes further opportunities at the elite level would be invaluable for a young team still gaining international experience.

“The more cricket you play, the more experience you get, and the better you become in those pressure situations,” she said. “We’re still quite a young team. We’ve not all played a lot of international cricket.”

Scotland will have one final opportunity to end their Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 campaign on a positive note when they take on Sri Lanka on Friday.