WT20 2016: Ireland v Oman – Preview
Mar 9, 2016 at 11:08 AM
In the Group A encounter of World T20 2016, Ireland and Oman will begin their WT20 2016 journey at Dharamsala on Wednesday. It will be their first international meeting in cricket history.
Ireland is clearly a favourite in this match as the team has good experience in the international circuit as it is their 5th WT20 journey. On the other hand, Oman is a new team in the international cricket and they are featuring the first time in World T20 as well as first ever major international tournament.
Yet in recent times, Ireland is struggling in the T20I format as their performances are not consistent. Since the end of last WT20 2014 in Bangladesh, Ireland played 13 T20Is out of which they only won 4 matches while they lost 7 matches and the rest of 2 matches finished as no result. Among the 4 matches they won, 3 came this year. It is a good sign for Ireland team ahead of the WT20 but they need to improve more to be competitive. Recently, Ireland suffered a defeat against Zimbabwe in a warm-up match ahead of WT20 2016.
On the other hand, the new team Oman has not played much international cricket yet, but they already tasted a win in T20I. In the recently concluded Asia Cup T20 Qualifier, they finished in 3rd position out of 4 Asian associate teams after achieving one win against Hong Kong. They are hoping to make an upset in the WT20 2016 by their good performances.
Ireland’s full squad for 2016 WT20: – William Porterfield (c), Andy Balbirnie, George Dockrell, Andy McBrine, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Andrew Poynter, Stuart Poynter, Boyd Rankin, Max Sorensen, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson, Craig Young.
Oman’s full squad for 2016 WT20:- Sultan Ahmed (c), Aamir Kaleem, Syed Amir Ali, Munis Ansari, Jatinder Singh, Ajay Lalcheta, Amir Ali, Mehran Khan, Rajesh Ranpura, Sufyan Mehmood, Vaibhav Wategaonkar, Zeeshan Ahmad Siddiqui, Zeeshan Maqsood, Bilal Khan, Adnan Ilyas, Aaqib Ilyas Sulehri (Standby Player), Mohammad Nadeem (Standby Player), Arun Poulose (Standby Player), Yousuf Mahmood (Standby Player).