National Cricket Academy (NCA) head VVS Laxman will not travel to Ireland with Jasprit Bumrah-led India for three-T20I series. As Rahul Dravid will be busy with the ODI side preparing for World Cup later this year, Laxman was expected to accompany the second-string side. However, Sports Tak has learned that the team will travel with support staff including Sairaj Bahutule and Sitanshu Kotak.
Bumrah will be returning to cricketing action for the first time since September 2022 when a stress fracture ruled him out of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 and World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 final against Australia.
In the absence of Hardik Pandya, Bumrah will be leading the second-string side which will mark the debut of players like Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, and Prasidh Krishna.
The series will also act as a litmus test for Bumrah’s fitness. If Bumrah passes with flying colours, he may return to the ODI side ahead of the World Cup. Players who are not a part of the ongoing five-T20I series against West Indies will fly to Dublin on August 15. The rest of the squad who are currently in Miami, Florida will join them there.
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 be played from August 18 to August 23. All the matches will be played at The Village, Dublin.
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
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
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