Big picture – India have a record to defend
A slightly slow and bouncy pitch, two overs of poor execution with the ball, and
India‘s phenomenal run of 12 straight series or tournament wins in T20Is has been snapped. They still have a record to defend: that of 16 consecutive undefeated series or tournaments. Gautam Gambhir, the head coach who presided over India’s first Test series whitewash at home and the end of a 12-year undefeated run in Test series at home, does not want this on his CV. He has called for optional nets even though there is only one day between the two T20Is in Belfast.
Ireland, still basking in the glow of their
first international win against India, will dream of a series win, which could be their biggest result in bilateral international cricket since they beat West Indies 2-1 in ODIs in early 2022. Only four of those players played in the XI against India on Friday. They knew the conditions better, which proved to be critical.
India will look for a big improvement with the ball even though they started off perfectly well, reducing Ireland to 30 for 3. Similar conditions will mean more bowling into the pitch to try and force batters to score square rather than hit to the short straight boundary.
Also under the scanner will be
Shreyas Iyer‘s team selection and the use of bowlers after he brought
Washington Sundar on for the first time in the 16th over against two right-hand batters, an over in which the momentum shifted towards Ireland.
India LWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Ireland WWLLW
In the spotlight: Jai Moondra and Harshit Rana
Jai Moondra, born in the same town of Tonk in Rajasthan as another international left-arm seamer, Khaleel Ahmed, chose a different route to international cricket, qualifying to play for Ireland and then taking a wicket first ball on international debut, incidentally against the country of his birth. He is not extraordinarily tall, but he used the conditions well on Friday. Can he play a part in a series upset against his country of birth?
Harshit Rana was desperately unlucky when he injured himself in the warm-up round of the T20 World Cup, missing both India’s title win and then the IPL. He returned to top-flight cricket not having missed a beat, banging the hard length, and returning figures of 4-0-24-3. He will want to establish himself firmly in the XI, especially in the absence of the resting Jasprit Bumrah.
Washington was always going to be a dicey selection given Ireland’s lack of left-hand batters and no vacancy in India’s top five. He scored his runs for Gujarat Titans batting at No. 4. If
Suryansh Shedge makes it in time, he could replace Washington in the XI. Or Vaibhav Sooryavanshi could make his much-anticipated international debut, pushing everyone one slot down.
India (probable) 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma/Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt.), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Washington Sundar/Suryansh Shedge, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Harshit Rana, 11 Ravi Bishnoi/Prasidh Krishna/Prince Yadav.
Ireland have no reason to tinker with the combination that gave them the series lead.
Ireland (probable) 1 Tim Tector, 2 Ross Adair, 3 Harry Tector, 4 Lorcan Tucker (capt, wk), 5 Ben Calitz, 6 Gareth Delaney, 7 George Dockrell, 8 Matthew Humphreys, 9 Matt Hollard, 10 Liam McCarthy, 11 Jai Moondra.
Expect more of the same from the pitch: a bit of slowness, a bit of extra bounce, bringing the big square boundaries into play. The weather continues to be fair.
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