Paul Stirling to lead Ireland against India for this month's three-match T20I series

Cricket Ireland on Friday named a 15-player squad led by the experienced Paul Stirling that will face India in a three-match T20I series between August 18 and 23 at Malahide.

While the majority of the squad reflects the playing group that successfully qualified for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup last week, the selectors have recalled Leinster Lightning all-rounder Fionn Hand and have included Gareth Delany who is returning from injury after breaking his wrist in Zimbabwe in June.

The upcoming series is the first T20 action for the national side since securing T20 World Cup qualification and is being treated accordingly as part of the strategic planning for that tournament scheduled to be hosted by the West Indian and the United States for 4th to 30th June 2024

“The recent qualifying campaign in Scotland was the first stage of our strategic planning for next June’s T20 World Cup," Andrew White, Ireland Men’s national selector, said in an official statement. .

"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 what opportunities we have to provide exposure and experience to a pool of players who we believe are in contention for making that World Cup squad," " White added.

“Giving opportunities to players also filters down the series themselves, so I would expect that all of the 15 players named in the India series squad will feature at some point.

"he Indian side arriving in Ireland is an exciting one for the supporters, but as we showed last year, we have the talent and confidence to match them on the field of play and we have high hopes for another fiercely contested series," he said.

“So, while the immediate task at hand for Heinrich and the leadership team is on the India challenge, we are definitely framing this series as an important component of a longer-term plan to be ready to take on the world’s best at the T20 World Cup next year."

Earlier, last month, India also named their squad for the T20I series against Ireland, with Jasprit Bumrah making his return to competitive cricket as he will lead Men in Blue.

India hold the overall lead against Ireland in T20Is. The two teams have faced each other in five T20Is and India have won all of them.

ALSO READ

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.