IND tour of IRE 2023
IRE vs IND, 1st T20

Preview

Following an upset against West Indies in the recent T20I series, Men In Blue will travel to Ireland for a three-match T20I series. The first T20I of the series will be played at The Village, Dublin on 18th August between the two sides. The gun bowler Jasprit Bumrah is all set to make his comeback for team India after a gap of almost a year. With his return, the 29-year-old Bumrah will captain India as well for this tour against Ireland.

Another fast bowler making a comeback from injury is Prasidh Krishna, the 27-year-old bowler who was also in the process of recovering from the lumbar stress fracture that kept him sidelined for almost a year. Under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya-led India lost 3-2 against the Caribbean side, a week back. The likes of Ravi Bishnoi, Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Arshdeep Singh, Sanju Samson, Mukesh Kumar, and Avesh Khan are the sole members of IND's T20I squad in the WI who have been retained for this upcoming series. The left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh was the leading wicket-taker for Men in Blue with 7 wickets in 5 matches at an average of 22.29. Team India will be heading for this series without the likes of Suryakumar, Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

In the Irish camp, the 25-year-old right-handed batter Fionn Hand and 26-year-old right-handed batter Gareth Delany have been recalled to the IRE squad, resulting in the omission of wicketkeeper-batter Neil Rock and seamer Graham Hume. The Irish side recently came second in the Mens T20 World Series Europe Qualifier to secure a place in the World 20-20 Series 2024. The left-arm tall bowler Mark Adair finished as the leading wicket-taker of the competition claiming 12 wickets. After IRE's hopes of securing a berth at the ODI World Series in India later this year were dashed following a disappointing campaign in Zimbabwe, the 12-placed in the T20I ranking, the Hosts finished second in the Europe T20 Qualifier to book the ticket to T20 World Series 2024.

The veteran batter Paul Stirling will be captaining IRE against IND and the 32-year-old right-handed batter is likely to open with Andrew Balbirnie. He is the leading run-scorer for Ireland with 3379 runs, scoring 122 runs in the 5 matches of the qualifier with a strike rate of 145.24. But Stirling's record against the number one T20I side is poor, just added 45 runs in 4 matches. While his opening partner the 32-year-old Balbirnie has added 80 runs in the same number of matches against India.

Besides Bumraj and Krishna, IND has added Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Washington Sinder, and Shahbaz Ahmed for the three-match T20I series. Gaikwad will be vice-captain of the side for this tour. During a triumphant season, the 26-year-old batter emerged as the second-highest run-scorer for the Chennai franchise in the recent IND T20 League, amassing an impressive total of 590 runs in 16 matches. Gaikwad maintained a formidable strike rate of 147.50, contributing significantly to the team's success. He will open with the left-handed batter Yashaswi Jaiswal who recently had his T20I debut and scored 72 runs in his last game against WI.

IRE and IND have played 11 T20Is this year and both have 6 wins & 5 losses each. Men In Blue is unbeaten against the Irish side in the 5 matches played so far including a 2-0 series win in the Hosts last year.

Match Details

Match: IND tour of IRE 2023, IRE vs IND 1st T20

Date: Friday, August 18, 2023 

Time: 07:30 PM IST

Venue: The Village - Malahide Cricket Club Ground, Dublin, Ireland

Pitch and Weather Report

On this track, In 21 T20Is, the results have favoured the team chasing the target 13 times. Even the last five matches out of 7 have been won by the team that opted to bowl first. The average first-innings score at the Malahide Cricket Club Ground is 153. The skipper winning the toss should bowl first. The stadium has a capacity of 15,000 spectators and has hosted 28 ODIs & 21 T20Is so far. In 2018, the Hosts recorded the lowest total on the ground (70) against India.

The Pitch is known for its well-maintained pitches that offer assistance to both batters and bowlers. Malahide Cricket Club Ground tends to be relatively flat, which generally favours batters who can play their shots freely. However, there might be some movement and assistance for the seamers, especially early in the innings, due to the cool and damp conditions that Dublin often experiences.

Partly cloudy in the morning followed by rain throughout the day. The temperature will range between 15 and 18 on the match day between IRE and IND in the first T20I match.

IRE vs IND Squads

IRE: Paul Stirling (Captain), Andrew Balbirnie, Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Gareth Delany, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Fionn Hand, Lorcan Tucker (WK), Mark Adair, Joshua Little, Barry McCarthy, Theo van Woerkom, Benjamin White, Craig Young

IND: Jasprit Bumrah (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sanju Samson, Jitesh Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan

IRE vs IND Probable Playing XIs

IRE: Andrew Balbirnie, Paul Stirling (c), Lorcan Tucker (wk), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Joshua Little, Benjamin White.

IND: Yashaswi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah (C), Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar

Match Prediction

Though the Visitors will be entering the series with a clean record against the Hosts, their recent experience against WI showed their flaws with bowling. With two of the 5 bowlers returning after a gap of 11 months, IRE will be eyeing to exploit IND's weakness. IND has 5 wins against the hosts in 5 matches. In the last year, IND managed to win the series 2-0 at the same venue. We say IND to win this match.

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