Currently, the Indian cricket team is standing at the third position in the ICC T20I rankings, while Ireland is down at No.17. But in Irish conditions, the difference in rankings seems to be small, the visitors registered a thumping 76-run victory in the first T20I of the series at The Village, Malahide, Dublin on Wednesday. India managed to put 208/5 (20 overs) on the board while Ireland was restricted for just 132/9 in 20 overs.

Thanks to Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan’s brilliant 160-run partnership, India found a big total on the board. Earlier in the game, Irish captain Garry Wilson won the toss and decided to field first. Indian captain Virat Kohli fielded the side without selecting KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav and Washington Sundar.

Indian openers gave as many as three regular chances which were put down by the Irish fielders and those punished them. While the openers lost their wickets at late, other Indian batsmen didn’t get enough chances to bat on. Irish pacer Peter Chase picked up three wickets in the final over as he had a bowling figure of 4-0-35-4. 

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In reply, most of Ireland batsmen struggled as the hosts only managed to score 132 runs. Opener James Shannon was the only Irish batsman to reach the 20-run mark while Stuart Thompson was the second highest runs scorer in that innings with a 12-run knock. Among the Indian bowlers, spinners mostly dominated as Kuldeep Yadav (4/21) and Yuzvendra Chahal (3/38) shared seven wickets while the pacer Jasprit Bumrah (2/19) got wickets as a lone Indian pacer.

For the second T20I, the good thing for India is that they have best of the team to pick from. Coming to the ongoing series, while India is the favorite side, their team combination will be interesting to watch in the second T20I as well. Going with the current form it seems very difficult to pick a particular XI but we are trying best to analyze the squad.

As after the first T20I, Indian skipper hinted of experiments in the next game, it seems that Kla Rahul might get a chance to open the innings. Manish Pandey can get another chance, while Dinesh Karthik deserves a chance as well. In the bowling department, Kuldeep and Chahal make the direct entry, while the third and fourth place is expected to be filled by Siddharth Kaul or Umesh Yadav.

India’s predicted T20I XI against Ireland:

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan/ KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik/ Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/ Siddharth Kaul, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav/ Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal.