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Ireland
India
India and Ireland will meet in the 2nd T20I of the India tour of Ireland at the Civil Service Cricket Club in Belfast. India will start the match as favourites based on their recent form. They arrive after winning the only Test against Afghanistan by an innings margin and completing a 3-0 sweep in the ODI series.
Ireland relies on home conditions and will look to challenge a stronger Indian side. Lorcan Tucker will lead the hosts and will expect a better all-round effort from his team. India will be led by new T20I captain Shreyas Iyer, while there will be interest around a possible international debut for 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Head-to-head numbers also favour India, with 4 wins in the last 5 meetings, while one match ended without a result.
Arshdeep Singh has taken 15 wickets in his last 9 T20Is and will face an Ireland batting lineup missing several key players, giving him a strong chance of picking up multiple wickets.
The betting tip is...
Arshdeep Singh - Over 1.5 wickets
70 %
30 %
IrelandIndiaIreland enters the series with a depleted squad after appointing Lorcan Tucker as their new T20I captain. Tucker took over the role after Paul Stirling stepped down following the T20 World Cup. Along with Stirling, Ireland is also without several key seamers through injury, including Josh Little, Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Barry McCarthy and Jordan Neill.
Reuben Wilson, who made his Test debut against New Zealand last month, pushed for his first limited-overs appearance. Jai Moondra and Matt Hollard were also in contention for their first Ireland caps. Gavin Hoey earned selection ahead of Ben White and remains in line for a T20I debut.
Ireland selected a deep batting unit led by Lorcan Tucker and Harry Tector. Tucker scored 366 runs in his last 13 innings, while Tector made 402 runs during the same period. Matthew Humphreys took 19 wickets in his last 13 innings. Gareth Delany and George Dockrell added all-round experience.
Tector, Tucker and Humphreys are the key players.
Predicted Lineup: Tim Tector, Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (c), Ben Calitz (wk), George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Liam McCarthy, Reuben Wilson, Gavin Hoey, Matthew Humphreys.
India suffered a setback before the series as Nitish Kumar Reddy was ruled out of the Ireland and England tours with a quadriceps injury. With Hardik Pandya also unavailable, India enters the series without a genuine seam-bowling all-rounder.
The selectors picked an interesting squad with a mix of experienced players and young talent. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi earned a place in the squad and remained in contention to open the batting alongside Abhishek Sharma. Prince Yadav was also rewarded with a call-up after a strong IPL season. Shreyas Iyer took over as captain, while Tilak Varma was named vice-captain. One of Sanju Samson or Ishan Kishan was expected to take wicketkeeping duties.
Shivam Dube and Axar Patel were selected as the main all-rounders. The pace attack consisted of Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna. Ravi Bishnoi was the specialist spinner in the squad alongside Axar Patel.
Abhishek, Shreyas and Arshdeep are the key players.
Predicted Lineup: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Shreyas Iyer (c), Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana.
India will start this match as strong favourites and should have the edge in both batting and bowling. Their batting lineup looks deeper and more reliable, with several players capable of making useful contributions. Ireland will need one or more of their senior batters to play a big innings to stay competitive, but matching India's overall quality will be difficult.
India's bowling attack could make the difference once again. Arshdeep Singh has taken 15 wickets in his last 9 T20Is and carries good form from the IPL into international cricket.
His ability to strike with the new ball and at the death will put pressure on Ireland's batting lineup. With Ireland missing several experienced players, India should create regular wicket-taking opportunities and remain in control for most of the game.
