India’s fringe players, including struggling Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson, will get another chance to prove themselves before the return of seniors when Hardik Pandya made his much-awaited international captaincy debut against Ireland in the two-match T20I series. Here on Sunday.
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With Rishabh Pant joining the Test squad in England, Pandya was appointed the stand-in captain following his heroics in leading Gujarat Titans to an IPL 2022 victory in their first season. Pant stood in his last T20I series at home against South Africa as captain after KL Rahul was ruled out due to a back injury.
what: India vs Ireland, 1st T20I match
When: June 26, 2022 (Sunday)
Where: Village, Dublin
Time: IS at 9 pm
India Team News
In the last 24 months, India have been forced to hand over the captaincy responsibility to several players due to injuries, scheduling issues and workload management. Hardik has joined that list for the only series in Ireland and the expectations will be high after his exploits with Gujarat Titans.
NCA chief VVS Laxman, who will replace India head coach Rahul Dravid in the short-series, later overseeing the Test team’s preparations in England, is expected to follow the template set by his former teammate.
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The two games will provide more clarity to the think tank on identifying the core group of players for T20Is World Cup in Australia later this year and team up for three matches against strong England next month.
In the home series against South Africa, Dravid displayed his steady approach and retained the team in all five matches despite losing the first two games. The Pant-led side bounced back at 2-2 before the fifth match was washed out.
With Pant and Shreyas Iyer joining the Test squad in the UK, the series opens a window for the likes of Sanju Samson and Deepak Hooda.
It could be a make or break situation for Samson who has not been able to establish himself in the T20 set-up despite getting several chances.
Coming back from a wrist injury, Suryakumar Yadav will make a comeback in the playing XI and is likely to bat at No. 3 or 4.
Ishan Kishan made a strong case for the reserve opener’s spot with his consistent runs against South Africa and he would like to build on that success.
The pressure will be on his opening partner Gaikwad, who looked uneasy against high-quality fast bowling in the last series.
India pacer Umran Malik and yorker-specialist Arshdeep Singh, who patiently warmed the bench against South Africa, could get their big break with the conditions expected to favor the fast bowlers.
Ireland Team News
With due respect, Ireland is not expected to push India to the limit like South Africa, giving visitors more freedom to experiment. For Irish players, the series against the mighty India offers them an opportunity to garner global attention.
Uncapped Stephen Doheny and Conor Olfert have earned a call-up for the first time in the Andrew Balbirnie-led side, who feels India remain a very strong outfit despite the absence of senior players including Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah.
“Any team you play with these days will be a good team. It shows the depth of Indian cricket that they can knock out two teams. We couldn’t have done that – there’s no way we can take out a Test team and a T20 team at the same time, we don’t have the numbers for that,” Balbirnie said before the series opener .
full squad
India: Hardik Pandya (captain), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh , Umran Malik.
Ireland: Andrew Balbirnie (capt), Mark Adair, Curtis Camper, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Stephen Doheny, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Conor Olfert, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Craig Young.
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