India lock horns against Ireland in 1st T20I on Wednesday.
India are set to begin their long tour of UK by playing a two-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series against Ireland, starting Wednesday.
Since the Irish conditions are more or less same as England, Team India will treat the two games as warm-up for the limited-overs series against England, the country which is also going to host the ICC Cricket World Cup next year.
India and Ireland, so far, have locked horns in only one T20I which they played during the 2009 World T20. The match was played at Nottingham and it was India who came out on top. Batting first, Ireland were restricted to 112 for 8 and India chased down the target with eight wickets and 15 balls to spare.
The upcoming two T20Is will give India the idea of the pitches and weather along with what to expect from the bowlers in the English conditions. Moreover, there have been a few players who are returning after an injury so this series will give them the time to get back to the grove.
Here are the 4 things India will want to take from Ireland series:
Virat Kohli’s fitness
One country where Virat Kohli has not left his mark is England. Although he has suggested that people have held India’s previous 2014 tour for a very long time, one cannot ignore his numbers in that series.
13.30 – Kohli’s average during India’s Test series in England in 2014. He became a laughing stock when James Anderson dismissed him three out of the 10 innings Kohli had batted against him; he got out twice against Stuart Broad, twice against Chris Jordon and once against Liam Plunkett and Moeen Ali each. Out of 10 dismissals that series, Kohli succumbed to edges seven times. He would more often than not find an edge to first or second slip.
Since then, Kohli has made subtle changes to his technique and has been unstoppable ever since. He even had made a call to play County Cricket prior to the upcoming England series but unfortunately, he got injured.
Earlier, Kohli’s fragility against spin was exposed during the IPL 2018. Although, he played some 50-plus innings, he wasn’t at his best.
Against Ireland, Kohli would want to get back to his 100% in order to lead India from the front when they take on England in the limited-overs series, starting July 3.
Indian openers do well
One of the main reasons India have dominated in the smaller formats in the recent times is the consistency of their openers – Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma.
Recalling the ICC Champions Trophy in England last year, Dhawan and Rohit topped the runs charts with 338 and 304 runs respectively. Both the batsmen have consistently performed well in that part of the globe and going into the full-fledged series against England, India will want these two perform well against Ireland. Although there is a vast difference between the bowling attacks of England and Ireland but a decent show from the opening duo against the Irish will only boost their confidence.
Bhuveneshwar Kumar’s fitness
Kumar has been Kohli’s key bowler in the white-ball game and his injury will be tricky ahead of the crucial England series.
Kumar, who missed most of the IPL matches due to the minor injury, wasn’t up-to the mark in the matches he managed to play. Hence, the two T20Is against Ireland are a great opportunity for him to get back to form before India fly back to England.
He has only played 50-over game in England. He has bagged 18 wickets from 14 games but Kumar is yet to play a T20I in England or Ireland. India would be looking at this T20I series against the Irish as the platform where Kumar could make full use of this chance and regain his rhythm and form and get accustomed to these conditions.
The magic of wrist spinners
India’s limited-overs series during their South Africa tour was all about one detail – dominance of India’s wrist spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Regardless of the pitch conditions if suited to spin or not, Kohli sets the required field for them and his timing of bringing them in action has done the job for India in derailing the opponents.
Since Ireland do not have an established spinner, that will give the duo of Yadav and Chahal a chance to destroy the opponents and start off their UK tour with flying colours.
England will hope that the Irish batsmen are able to decode the Indian spinners and not struggle as much as the South Africans did. If the spinners once get into their song and control the innings thoroughly, they dominate so much that they reduce the confidence of the opponents’ batsmen and England will not want to get into a situation like that.
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