Ireland have announced a 15-member T20I squad for three-T20I series against Jasprit Bumrah-led India. All-rounder Gareth Delany has made a comeback into the T20I side after recovering from a broken wrist. In addition, 25-year-old all-rounder Fionn Hand who played his last T20I in March has been recalled.
This will be Ireland's first T20I series after qualifying for next year's T20 World Cup which will be played in the USA and West Indies.
Delany had broken his wrist in Zimbabwe in June. He has scored 853 runs from 53 innings including three half-centuries and took 37 wickets. Hand has just four wickets from 10 games. His economy rate is 10.17 runs per over. It will be interesting to see how he fares against a second-string side.
Earlier this week, Bumrah was named the captain of the T20I squad in the absence of Hardik Pandya who has been rested for the series. Bumrah will be returning to the international arena after recovering from back injury.
Ireland's men's national selector Andrew White feels that the series will be an opportunity to finalise their squad for the big event.
"The recent qualifying campaign in Scotland was the first stage of our strategic planning for next June's T20 World Cup," White said. "We currently have around 15 T20 Internationals scheduled between now and the World Cup, so it is important that we use each of these to continue to build on areas that the coaching team have identified.
"We only have a limited time between now and the end of the 2023 domestic season, so it's also crucial that we use the opportunities we have to provide exposure and experience to a pool of players we believe are in contention for making that World Cup squad.”
India and Ireland have faced each other in five T20Is so far and the latter is yet to win a game. The T20I series will begin on August 18 to 23 at Malahide.
Ireland T20I squad: Paul Stirling (c), Andrew Balbirnie, Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Fionn Hand, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Theo van Woerkom, Ben White, Craig Young
India T20I squad: Jasprit Bumrah (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan
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