Paul Stirling to lead as Ireland name 15-man squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2024

Ireland will kick-off their ICC T20 World Cup 2024 campaign on June 5 against India.

Paul Stirling will continue to lead as Ireland’s selectors named a 15-man provisional squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 on Tuesday, which is unchanged from the squad that faced Afghanistan in their most recent T20I series.

Ireland are placed in Group A of the tournament, alongside India, Pakistan, USA, and Canada. They will play their first match against India on June 5.

This will be Stirling’s eighth successive T20 World Cup and he has played 21 of Ireland’s 25 previous men’s T20 World Cup matches and is their fifth-highest run-scorer in men’s T20I history. He had replaced Andy Balbirnie as Ireland’s white-ball captain last year.

He leads a side that has only marginally changed from 2022 when Ireland advanced to the Super 12s by defeating the West Indies and Scotland in the first round before stunning eventual champions England in the second stage.

“We have an intensive block of T20 cricket coming up this month ahead of the T20 World Cup – we have seven games in 15 days as preparation for the tournament. We will not be treating those seven games as warmups, though, we’ll be aiming to win as many of those games as possible.

The squad is one that we have gradually developed and tested out over the last 18 or so months – the skill sets we need to cover are there, albeit we have allowed Josh [Little] to continue in the IPL until his side end their campaign, so he will likely join us ahead of the big tournament.

We are now entering the final stretch before the T20 World Cup begins, it will be a challenging couple of weeks, but we’re ready to tackle whatever is thrown at us,” Ireland Men’s Head Coach Heinrich Malan said.

Josh Little to join the Ireland squad straight for the T20 World Cup; To miss the Pakistan T20Is and Scotland, Netherlands tri-series

Josh Little will stay in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 until the Gujarat Titans’ (GT) final game, with Cricket Ireland allowing him to miss their T20I series against Pakistan and tri-series in the Netherlands, which serve as the foundation for their preparation for June’s T20 World Cup. GT are placed 10th on the points table and will play their final league game on May 16.

Three players have been named to the 2024 squad who were not in it 18 months ago: Ross Adair, an attacking batter and the older brother of seamer Mark; Neil Rock, Lorcan Tucker’s backup wicket-keeper batter; and Ben White, a leg-spinner. Stephen Doheny, Fionn Hand, Conor Olphert, and Simi Singh all missed out.

Ireland’s T20 World Cup campaign will begin on June 5 against India at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, a temporary stadium outside New York City, and will continue two days later against Canada at the same venue. They will next go to Lauderhill, Florida, to face the USA and Pakistan on June 14 and 16 respectively.

Ireland squad for Pakistan T20Is, tri-series and T20 World Cup 2024:

Paul Stirling (C), Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Andy Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Josh Little*, Barry McCarthy, Neil Rock (wk), Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Ben White, Craig Young.

*Josh Little only to be part of ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

SQUADS NAMEDIreland Men’s T20I squads have been named for the @T20WorldCup, Pakistan series and Tri-Series.👉 Read here: https://t.co/ElmxNNEglE#BackingGreen ☘️🏏 #IrishCricket pic.twitter.com/iGsPjZ3T7C

— Cricket Ireland (@cricketireland) May 7, 2024

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