As people read results for the Scotland cricket team this year they will see a number of new names and faces. With the new ruling coming into force this year of being able to select players with Scottish parentage it really has opened up a whole new raft of players available to Pete Steindl this season and Pete has certainly laid down a marker by naming Neil Carter, Ian Wardlaw, Matt Machan, Rob Taylor and David Murphy for the 1st time on the tour of Dubai and Sharjah to take on the Afghanistan Team. These selections have been received with mixed views by the Scottish public who have witnessed a number of home grown talent moved aside for the above mentioned.

For me personally it does help bring us into line with a number of our competitors including Ireland, Canada, Holland and indeed Afghanistan who have been able to use the passport scenario to their advantage. Crucially though I think it's absolutely vital that we keep our identity and don't just pick players on the fact they have represented a County second XI.

If players come in and play with Pride and Passion for Scotland and are better then the current home grown players then I think we have a very exciting situation as all of a sudden you have huge competition for places which I think has been lacking in the last 2 years and a squad of 15 full time players with a number of very good now experienced players chomping at the bit to get into the side.

We should see standards improve dramatically as a result and qualification for the World Cup should be the mark that this team must be measured against. Pete is now an experienced coach and will be under a bit more pressure then he has been for the last couple of years as he went about rebuilding a side following a number of key retirees. With these additional resources at his disposal expectation will be high.

2013 kicks off with a very tough exercise against a battle hardened and experienced Afghanistan side and the fact they are playing in the Sub Continent conditions of Sharjah and Dubai makes it an even tougher exercise.

The Afghanistan team have played a lot of cricket of late and boast a number of very exciting and explosive players with a good mix of spin and pace to fall back on. They are incredibly mouthy on the pitch and play with an arrogance none of the other Associate Teams seem to play with - for Scotland to beat them they have to fight fire with fire and display an Arrogance not normally associated with the likeable Scottish team. I do think by including some battle hardened County Players this will add to the cause. In terms of making a prediction I am finding this a hard series to call.

My heart says Scotland but my head says Afghanistan - my main concern is a lack of a second spinner to back up Majid Haq and that's what puts Afghanistan favourite for all 3 forms. Had Ross Lyons been playing I must say I would be backing us. However let's be honest my previous predictions haven't been that good so let's hope the lads ram this down my throat when they see me on me my return.

I am expecting big things from Richie Berrington and Kyle Coetzer on this tour - I rate both those players very highly and think they have the game to succeed on the pitches in UAE. On the bowling front I am expecting a big season for Saffy Sharif, back from injury and with a full season for Scotland under his belt I think he is going to be a handful, plus he has the pace to worry the Afghan players who are susceptible to short pitched bowling.

I am looking forward to see how our new players fare and what XI Pete goes for in the first match which starts tomorrow at 16:00 GMT - fingers crossed they get a lively pitch under lights and our potent seam attack bowls us to victory