India will be locking horns with Ireland during the eighth game of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, in New York. This Ind vs Ire match will be the campaign opener for both the respective sides.
India is coming into the game, on the back of their successful preparation during the one and only warm-up fixture against Bangladesh in the same ground. Batting first, they put up 182/5 in their 20 overs, thanks to the unbeaten 53-run knock from their wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant, and a brilliant 40* runs from Hardik Pandya.
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Going into the Ind vs Ire game, the bowlers too showed great assistance and consistency with the ball in hand. The left-arm pace of Arshdeep Singh was too hot to handle for the neighboring country, as they found it really hard to even connect the bat with the ball. The leader of their pace bowling attack, Jasprit Bumrah too looked in good touch for figures of 1/12 in his two overs.
Rohit Sharma introduced Shivam Dube too into the attack, to scratch every possible way to give him bowling practice. What transpired was the good pace of Hardik Pandya, who ended the game with 1/30 in his three overs. Mohammad Siraj, coming into the Ind vs Ire encounter bowled with pace and bounce, while it was an indication India are perhaps thinking of not starting with Yuzvendra Chahal, as the leg-spinner didn’t roll his arms even for a single delivery in the afternoon.
For Ireland, they were coming after a heavy defeat by a 41-run margin in their only practice game against Sri Lanka, at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground, Lauderhill in Florida. However, from the practice game, the Ireland team got more questions, rather than their answers going into their season-opening game against India.
Deciding to bowl first, they restricted SL to 163/8 in their 20 overs, as Mark Adair showed his good bowling with figures of 1/28 in his four overs. Joshua Little, coming off a disturbing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 playing for the Gujarat Titans was smashed all around the park for his poor figures of 2/45 in four overs. Craig Young, and Barry McCarthy, however, bowled decently going into the Ind vs Ire affair.
Their main issue was in the batting department. Apart from their captain Paul Stirling, no batter looked comfortable in the middle. The skipper made a 13-ball 21-run knock, while the others had hardly any answer against the Sri Lanka bowlers. In just 18.2 overs, the whole team was blown away for 122 runs, as they accepted the defeat by 41 runs.
Last Five Matches For IND vs IRE:
In the last five games of Ind vs Ire, the Indian team is unbeaten with a 5-0 margin. These games include India’s recent tour to Ireland in 2023, where the visitors got the better of the Irish side in all three games at the Village in Dublin, while the rest two were from the 2022 series at the same ground.
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IND vs IRE Teams:
India- The way India hasn’t used Yashasvi Jaiswal for the practice game, it’s very unlikely that he would open the innings.
Ind Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk.), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah.
Ireland
Ire Probable XI: Paul Stirling (c), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker (wk.), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Graham Hume, Craig Young, Benjamin White.