Ireland Men’s T20 international squad trained indoors today given the ongoing wet weather ahead of their next match against USA on Friday.
Munster Red’s Gareth Delany, 27, who has played 74 times for Ireland in T20Is, was speaking from a wet training session today::
“It was helpful to have a couple days off to get away from cricket and get over the disappointment of the first two games. It was an enjoyable few days, we’d a lovely team day out and then had a day trip into Miami to do some exploring. But now we are back into training and preparing for the next couple games.”
A word about the pitches from a spinners perspective?
“We’ve seen how things have been more favourable towards the bowling sides so far in this tournament – especially in New York. Although there hasn’t been too many overs of spin bowled generally.
“The biggest takeaway for me is to be keeping it as simple as possible and letting the surface offer some assistance. It will be interesting to see how the surfaces in Fort Lauderdale play and if spin will have more of an impact than it did in New York.”
About that caught and bowled in the last match:
“Ha, to be honest I think I made it look a lot harder than it was. For some reason, I didn’t react very quickly to the ball coming back at me. Maybe it looked a bit harder than it actually was, but thankfully it stuck.”
How would you best describe your role in the team with the bat?
“I’ve been given the instruction to go out and try take my positive options early and take the game on, when possible. It’s nice having that freedom to be able to go out and try score quickly.”
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
This is the 9th edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup – this year it has been expanded to 20 teams. The tournament is being co-hosted between Cricket West Indies and the USA and starts on 1 June 2024.
The tournament starts with a Group Stage consisting of four groups of five teams. Each team plays four Group Stage games and the top two teams from each Group progress to the Super 8 stage.
Ireland men at the tournament
The Group Stage schedule for Ireland Men is:
- 31 May: Warm-up match v Sri Lanka
- 5 June: Ireland Men v India Men
- 7 June: Ireland Men v Canada Men
- 14 June: Ireland Men v USA Men (T20I; Florida; start 10.30am local time or 3.30pm Ireland time)
- 16 June: Ireland Men v Pakistan Men (T20I; Florida; start 10.30am local time or 3.30pm Ireland time)
The squad selected consists of 15 players:
- Paul Stirling (Captain)
- Mark Adair
- Ross Adair
- Andrew Balbirnie
- Curtis Campher
- Gareth Delany
- George Dockrell
- Graham Hume
- Josh Little
- Barry McCarthy
- Neil Rock
- Harry Tector
- Lorcan Tucker
- Ben White
- Craig Young
The coaches and support staff are:
- Head Coach: Heinrich Malan
- Batting & Keeping Coach: Gary Wilson
- Spin Bowling Coach: Chris Brown
- Fast Bowling Coach: Ryan Eagleson
- Team Operations Manager: Chris Siddell
- Performance Analyst: Scott Irvine
- Physiotherapist: Mark Rausa
- S&C Coach: Brendan Connor
- Team Doctor: Colm McCarthy