India and Ireland will face off in the T20 World Cup after 15 years. This match, part of the current World Cup’s Group A, will take place today. The last time these two teams met in a T20 World Cup was in 2009. Both teams are eager to celebrate their second World Cup encounter with a victory.
In the 2009 T20 World Cup, India and Ireland faced each other for the first time in this format. Held in Nottingham, England, India won the match by 8 wickets. Despite six World Cups passing since then, they haven’t met again in this short format mega event. Finally, they will meet in the group stage of the ninth World Cup.
Since the 2009 World Cup, India has toured Ireland three times, playing six T20 matches and winning all of them. This gives India a 100% win record against Ireland in seven matches.
India aims to maintain its perfect record against Ireland and will enter the match as favorites. India’s head coach Rahul Dravid said, “We have a good record against Ireland. We want to strengthen this record further.
The team will play to win. Ireland always plays good cricket in the World Cup, and they defeated two big teams in the last World Cup. We must be cautious about today’s match and not give any opportunities to the opponents. India must dominate the entire match.”
Before the Ireland match, Dravid expressed dissatisfaction with India’s training facilities in the USA. Instead of a proper ground or indoor facility, the team had to practice in a public park. Criticizing the World Cup host, Dravid said, “A World Cup must have big stadiums or cricket-specific venues. But we have to practice in a public park, which is quite odd and inappropriate for a World Cup.”
India played an official warm-up match against Bangladesh before the World Cup, where they performed well in both batting and bowling. Batting first, India scored 182 runs for 5 wickets, and Bangladesh managed 122 runs for 9 wickets. India concluded their preparation with a 60-run victory. Prior to this, India was busy with the IPL and played only one T20 series this year, winning 3-0 against Afghanistan in January.
Meanwhile, Ireland participated in two bilateral series and a tri-nation series this year. They lost 2-1 to both Afghanistan and Pakistan but won the tri-nation series involving the Netherlands and Scotland.
Ireland has played in every World Cup since 2009, with their best performance in the last edition in 2022, where they won three matches. In that tournament, they defeated West Indies by 9 wickets and England by 5 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Ireland aims to surpass their previous World Cup achievements. Captain Paul Stirling said, “Our performance in the last World Cup was excellent. We defeated two former champions, West Indies and England. This time, we aim to surpass our past success and surprise the world again.”
India Team:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Hardik Pandya (Vice-Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (Wicketkeeper), Sanju Samson (Wicketkeeper), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Ireland Team:
Paul Stirling (Captain), Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Andrew Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, Neil Rock, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young.
