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Hibs striker Jason Cummings insists he is ready for his first Scotland call-up after enjoying a third successful season in front of goal for the Leith club.
The 21-year-old took his tally for the campaign to 20 with a stunning winning goal in last Friday’s Championship victory over Dundee United.
In reaching that milestone, Cummings matched legendary Hibs marksman Joe Baker’s record in netting 20 or more goals in three straight seasons.
Hibs midfielder John McGinn is in Gordon Strachan’s plans for Wednesday’s friendly with Canada at Easter Road and the crucial World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.
And Cummings is desperate to join him now that he is regarded as too old for the Scotland Under-21s.
Cummings, who has been named Ladbrokes Championship player of the month for February, said: “I’ve thought about the Scotland thing and I would say I’m ready for it.
“I’ve done my time with the 21s and I got a lot of experience there. I think I’m just ready whenever.
“The strikers are very decent, I’m not complaining or disappointed that I’m not in the squad at all because I’m not expecting that.
“But for the future, I think I’ve definitely got a chance.”
Cummings, who has now netted a total of 68 times for Hibs having scored 25 last term, added: “This is the best ratio I’ve had goals to games, I think I’m scoring a goal about every 100 minutes.
“Twenty five is my best for a season although there was a period of games here earlier this season that I did not start for six games in a row.
“There’s eight league games left and I want to try and beat my personal record.”
Cummings missed yesterday’s draw with Dumbarton after an eventful evening at Tannadice ended prematurely when he picked up a second booking for deliberately handling the ball into the net in the 75th minute.
His dismissal evened out the numbers after Lewis Toshney had already been ordered off for the hosts.
Hibs boss Neil Lennon branded the forward ‘stupid’ but Cummings admits it could have been a lot worse had United equalised.
He added: “Everyone was saying, ‘why did you do it?’ It was like an instinct, I didn’t even mean to do it.
“I’ve done it a couple of times in training as well and I don’t even mean it. The gaffer goes radge at me.
“I’m more annoyed with my first yellow when I threw the ball down in frustration after being caught offside again. I need to stop that from my game.
“You can laugh and joke about it now but we’re lucky we got the result.
“The last 20 minutes were the longest 20 minutes of my life because I was in that changing room absolutely sweating.
“I was sitting in the changing room listening to the crowd’s reaction.
“I was fearing the worst because I knew if they got an equaliser that I was going to get a wee slice of the blame.
“I’m so grateful to all the boys, when they came in I shook all their hands and I was buzzing they did the job.
“The gaffer said, ‘unbelievable goal, it won us the game’, but he also he said, ‘honestly, what are you doing? You could have cost us the game as well, you need to stop doing that’.”
