India take on Ireland with an eye on the T20 world cup

After a brief week of lull, Team India will once again take the yard as they collide with the Irish forces in the first T20I of a two-match series on Sunday. The young team that defied the likes of South Africa from a triumph on the Indian soil despite the visitors taking an early 2-0 lead would be squaring off with the Irish forces, with an eye on the T20 world cup scheduled for later this year.

India will be riding high on momentum that they managed to garner after the fourth assignment of the fray where the Indians turned around the game on its head, courtesy of a blitzkrieg from Dinesh Karthik while Avesh Khan cleaned up the South African resistance with a solid four-fer display.

There will be a few questions about the Indian batting that has needed a handful of heroic individual showdowns to guide them home while barring the opening contest of the South Africa series, the Indian bowlers were quite up to their task and conjured decent displays with the ball in their hands.

Despite being an associate nation, Ireland has proven over the years that they are one team who should not be taken lightly. They left a trail of carnage in the recently concluded World T20 Qualifiers where the only two losses that they would suffered were against the UAE.

Harry Tector and Paul Stirling conjured decent displays with the bat as the duo would plunder 232 runs together that would go a proverbial mile in helping Ireland establish as reckoning force. Craig Young and Josh Little 15 important wickets between them to get the ship sailing for the Irish forces.

Taking into consideration the ginormous difference on the papers, this contest will be a significant one for India given the testing platform that it would provide them with ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup that will be held in Australia later this year.

Match details:

Ireland vs India (1st T20I)

The Village, Malahide

26th June 2022

9:00 PM

Head-to-head:

Total matches: 3

India: 3

Ireland: 0

Squads:

India:

Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishan Kishan, Harshal Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda, Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel,  Avesh Khan,  Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh,  Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi.

Ireland:

Andrew Balbirnie, Harry Tector, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Paul Stirling, Curtis Campher, Stephen Doheny, Lorcan Tucker, Mark Adair, Conor Olphert,  Joshua Little, Andy McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Craig Young.