Gordon Drummond's elevation to the Scotland captaincy today completes a remarkable ascent for a player still new to international cricket and who picked up the rudiments of the game in a village. It is also the latest sea change for a team reinventing itself by the day.

Drummond, a medium-pace bowler blessed with the knack of inducing mistakes in cavalier opponents, proudly leads out his national side at Mannofield at the start of another running of the first-class Intercontinental Cup, with World Cup qualifiers Canada the guests in Aberdeen (11am).

Now a player/coach at Carlton, he has several seasons of leadership behind him from his time at Watsonians, where he pitched up after outgrowing Meigle, a charming club hidden away in bucolic Perthshire.

A spate of retirements and injuries in the past two years have given Drummond a far more comprehensive grounding in high-class cricket than even he probably expected to receive, and repeatedly he has risen to the challenge of the day, earning respect and popularity among his fellow players in the dressing room.

When Gavin Hamilton was appointed captain he was given two deputies to audition for succession rights over the next two years, but it is the younger man, Drummond, who has beaten Fraser Watts to the first available coin toss, with Hamilton forced to concentrate on his day job before resuming command in next week's one-day internationals against Canada at Aberdeen, on 7 and 8 July.

The 29-year-old should not feel unnerved at the prospect of addressing a dressing room stripped of experience after the retirements of Craig Wright and Colin Smith, the desertion of John Blain and injuries to full-timers Dewald Nel and Gordon Goudie that leave the new skipper charged again with taking the new ball.

"First and foremost this is a tremendous honour," Drummond said after training last night.

"I love the sport and I love my country as well, so to put the two together is just fantastic. We have lost some exceptional performers who have retired, but all that does is open up opportunities for others to come in and prove they have the ability to win matches for Scotland.

"Self-confidence is the key. You have to back yourself to be able to compete at any level and that's something I have learned to do after getting used to bowling at top-quality batsmen in the last couple of years."

Last month in London, Drummond was exposed for the first time to the most violent hitters in the world at the World Twenty20 and acquitted himself well with the ball in his grasp. The only pity was that he made one error that Sky Sports will reserve for Christmas blooper reels.

In the manic seven-over thrash against New Zealand, Drummond ran 50 yards in pursuit of a catch only for the white ball to vanish in a white sky; it bounced off his chest en route to the boundary.

It looked to the naked eye like the poor fielder had kicked it for four, and he wasn't spared by Sky commentator David Lloyd, but Drummond has a thick enough skin to absorb any chiding he may receive, whether it be from television or from spectators.

"I will be reminded about that for the rest of my life," he said. "But that's the kind of thing the crowd love. I get stick anyway and I can take it, and I just remind people of the wickets I took.

"It was a high-pressure game and that can add to it, but I'm not going to make excuses – it was a catch you should take 99 times out of 100 and I would have caught it in training.

"I think the next step for cricket in Scotland is for us to get over the line in that type of game."

Qasim Sheikh was last night ruled out of the Canada match with a viral infection, allowing Stuart Chalmers to join the squad and planting his namesake Ewan into the team. Thus begins a new era.

Scotland (v Canada, 2-5 July): G Drummond (capt), R Watson, F Watts, J Stander, N McCallum, S Smith, M Iqbal, M Haq, R Berrington, C MacLeod, E Chalmers, S Chalmers