New York: The colours of Indian and Irish flags are the same. Both are referred to as Tri-colour in respective countries. That’s where the similarity ends. When it comes to cricket, the sides are poles apart, with the former an absolute heavyweight and the latter sliding into the ring through the Europe region qualifying tournament.
The two will begin their T20 World Cup campaign at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium here on Wednesday, with an eye on making the top two of Group ‘A’ to qualify for the next stage of the competition.
India are hungry. They haven’t won the T20 World Cup since capturing the first one in 2007. This is the ninth edition of the tournament and the Blues have made the final only one other time, in 2014.
Rohit Sharma, who has been part of every T20 World Cup, leads an upbeat Indian team to end a long title-drought — India last won an ICC title in 2013, the Champions Trophy in England. And it would rile the Blues that they haven’t won the T20 World Cup since the advent of IPL, considered the top T20 tournament in the world.
All this would be on line and Ireland in the line of fire when the big guns take to the field on Wednesday.
Team India are undoubtedly loaded in terms of talent. The squad is a mix of youth and experience programmed for peak performance. Seasoned Virat Kohli is coming on the back of being the highest run-getter (741) in the recent IPL. Having made his T20 World Cup debut in 2012, the feisty fan-puller will make his sixth, and probably the last, attempt at the title. He has scored 1,141 runs at an average of 81.50 and a strike-rate 131.30 in 27 games at the tournament.
India will look to a flying start from openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Then, with Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja to follow, the runs should flow. Allrounder Shivam Dube could be in the mix too.
The bowling attack will be led by pace ace Jasprit Bumrah. Fellow quick Mohammed Siraj, spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzendra Chahal should provide solid support.
Ireland have had it tough. They’ve lost all three games against India at ICC events — once in the T20 World Cup (2009) and twice in the 50-over format, in 2011 and 2015. The start here too has not been favourable — they went down to Sri Lanka by 41 runs in a warm-up game.
Captained by allrounder Paul Stirling, the Irish team is bereft of big names but would draw strength from individual experiences. Left-arm pacer Josh Little knows a lot about the pressure of playing T20s, having been part of the Gujarat Titans in the IPL. The team is likely to rally around him in their quest for a winning start.
