Ever since India’s brief Twenty20 International tour of Ireland was announced in January, this year, it was expected to attract a lot of Irish crowds and eventually has exactly gone the way many anticipated.
The fixture on Friday is already sold out. The one on Wednesday will follow the same trend. Only 100 tickets are left for the sale. There has been a huge demand among Irish people to watch the matches.
Hence, the capacity at the Malahide Cricket Club Ground (MCC) has been increased from 6,500 to 8,000. It was only 6,500 during the Test match against Pakistan. However, due to the increasing demand, they had to increase.
Andrew White, the Chairman of National Selection Committee of Men’s cricket in Ireland said that the selectors chose a strong and inform squad.
“The selectors have chosen what we believe to be a strong, in-form squad for this format of the game that balances experience with youth. Our deliberations were around finding a side that was competitive now, but with an eye to the future.” White said in a release.
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“Many in the squad will be either travelling to Sussex this weekend for the Ed Joyce Testimonial match on Sunday or will be re-joining the senior squad from their English County sides. We had a good look at a number of players on the recent Tri-Series in the Netherlands and this weekend’s match in Sussex will firm up the decisions made on the final playing eleven for the first fixture on Wednesday,” he maintained.
“We will continue our approach of providing opportunities for a wider pool of players to gain experience in T20 cricket on the international stage. With around 12 months to go to the World T20 Cup qualifiers, we are looking to build a competitive squad for that qualification stage and hopefully to propel us into the main tournament in 2020,” he concluded.
Here is the full 14 member squad of Ireland:
- • Gary Wilson (Captain)
• Andrew Balbirnie
• Peter Chase
• George Dockrell
• Josh Little
• Andrew McBrine
• Kevin O’Brien
• William Porterfield
• Stuart Poynter
• Boyd Rankin
• James Shannon
• Simi Singh
• Paul Stirling
• Stuart Thompson
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