Photo Credit: Cricket Ireland
The Ireland Men’s cricket team is in Muscat, Oman, and is set to play a T20 series involving three T20 Internationals from 11 – 14 February 2022. The series will feature games against UAE, Oman and Nepal, and act as a warm-up series before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier later in February. Here’s what you need to know.
Ireland Men’s squad left Dublin on 4 February and have spent several days training at The Sevens Sports Grounds in Dubai.
A squad of 14 players has travelled out, as well as two travelling reserves, with all players passing their COVID tests to date.
The series will see four sides, all featuring in the forthcoming T20 Qualifier, getting high-quality cricket as part of their preparation programmes, with matches expected to be available via broadcast or livestream in most parts of the world.
Here is what you need to know about the upcoming series.
Ireland Men’s fixtures
• 11 February: Ireland Men v UAE Men (Match rescheduled – details TBC)
• 12 February: Ireland Men v Oman Men (2pm start, local time or 10am GMT; Academy Oval 1)
• 14 February: Ireland Men v Nepal Men (2pm start, local time or 10am GMT; Academy Oval 1)
All the matches will be played at the Al Amerat Cricket Ground (Ministry Turf 1), Al Amerat.
Ireland – a fresh start
The upcoming series is vital preparation against the teams who will – in reality – be the main rivals for a place in the World Cup in Australia.
Captain Andrew Balbirnie acknowledged the disappointment of losing the last series against UAE (prior to the T20 World Cup last year):
“That was really disappointing leading into the World Cup and while we can learn from those games and the way UAE went about it, we don’t want to look back at a period where there were a lot of disappointments.
“We need to focus on trying to bring this T20 team forward, almost starting afresh, and make sure, all being well, we will have an exciting and positive year in T20 cricket.”
He also spoke of how the squad were looking to continue the momentum from the West Indies series into the next phase:
“It’s been a short, but welcome break for the squad after getting home from the Caribbean. I know the lads have spent the time recharging after a long and challenging tour, but now are gearing up ready to get back out there.
“Our T20 results haven’t been where we’ve wanted them in recent times, so we’re keen to rectify that in this a T20 World Cup year. We are keen to put in consistent performances that warrant being at the top table of T20 cricket. This trip is a good place to get the ball rolling for hopefully a really important year.”
He also acknowledged several areas of his side’s T20 game that needed improving:
“In recent times we haven’t been able to accelerate in the middle overs and that’s something we’ve talked about. You can only do so much talking, though, and you’ve got to put faith in the guys to go out and perform.
“Consistency has been our Achilles Heel in T20s and we need to be on our game in every match to build some momentum, and if qualifying does come down to a one-off game hopefully we’ll have some money in the bank in terms of performances.
“Yes, we need to learn from our mistakes last year but this is almost like starting afresh and we’ve got to make sure we have a very positive year in T20 cricket and get to that World Cup.”
Ireland Men’s T20 squad
The squad consists of 14-players, with two additional travelling reserves as part of the COVID protocols.
Ireland Men’s squad:
Andrew Balbirnie (c), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Shane Getkate, Josh Little, Andy McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Craig Young.
Travelling reserves:
Neil Rock, Ben White
Opposition Squads
Oman – Jatinder Singh, Khawar Ali, Kashyap Prajapati, Ayaan Khan, Shoaib Khan, Sandeep Goud, Zeeshan Maqsood (c), Naseem Khushi (wk), Nestor Dhamba, Kaleemullah, Bilal Khan, Aamir Kaleem, Suraj Kumar, Wasim Ali
United Arab Emirates – Chirag Suri, Waseem Muhammad, Chundangapoyil Rizwan, Vriitya Aravind (wk), Muhammad Usman, Rohan Mustafa, Basil Hameed, Ahmed Raza (c), Kashif Daud, Zahoor Khan, Akif Raja, Junaid Siddique, Zawar Farid, Karthik Meiyappan
Nepal – Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh, Gyanendra Malla (c), Rohit Paudel, Binod Bhandari (wk), Sharad Vesawkar, Aarif Sheikh, Karan KC, Sompal Kami, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sushan Bhari, Bikram Sob, Pawan Sarraf, Abinash Bohara, Gulsan Jha, Kushal Malla
Broadcast / Livestream details
We have received the following advice:
The matches will be live on Eurosports in India, Geo Sports in Pakistan, Himalaya TV in Nepal and Next TV in USA. It would also be on digital mediums – Fancode in India. On YouTube it would be on OSR Sports in Nepal, CrickTracker in Rest of the World & on Facebook it would be on Sports Eye.
Livescoring
You can follow livescoring of the series (inc warm-up match) here: Visit our Match Centre
THE ICC MEN’S T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier A will take place between 18-24 February 2022. The top two teams from this Qualifier event progress to the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November 2022.
The fixtures for Ireland in the Qualifier Group Stage are:
• 18 February: Ireland Men v UAE Men (2pm start, local time; Academy Oval 1)
• 19 February: Ireland Men v Bahrain Men (2pm start, local time; Academy Oval 2)
• 21 February: Ireland Men v Germany Men (10am start, local time; Academy Oval 1)
Top two teams from each Group progress to a semi-final, with the two winners of the semi’s qualifying for the T20 World Cup.
