India vs Ireland: Virat Kohli will look to start English summer with a bang

India will begin their preparation for England tour by playing two T20Is against Ireland. The first of the two T20Is matches will be played at Malahide Cricket Club Ground or The Village in Dublin on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. The Indian cricket team have a full-strength squad to pick from, with captain Virat Kohli back in the team after nursing a neck injury. The men in blue will use the two T20Is against Ireland to get acclimatised to the English conditions as they have struggled to counter the swing and overcast conditions in England in the past and there is no better way to prepare than get a few games under the belt, and there is no place more suitable than Ireland.

 
However, the Ireland Cricket team are no pushovers and have T20 specialists like Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien in the team. Still, India will be expected to come through unscathed before they begin their England tour starting July 3. The two teams have played just one T20I in the past, during 2009 T20 World Cup which India won by 15 runs.

How Virat Kohli and Co will look at two T20Is against Ireland

For India, the two T20Is against Ireland will mark the onset of a long English summer for Virat Kohli & co, and perhaps it was a marker of this crucial impending assignment that India decided to stay on and practice in London on Monday, reports PTI. Since the tour of South Africa, this is the first time a full-strength Indian team will be seen in action. Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and MS Dhoni were rested for the T20 tri-series in Sri Lanka in March. The quadruple also missed the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Bengaluru recently. After a brilliant performance in IPL 2018, KL Rahul got another chance in limited over cricket and Ajinkya Rahane's omission from the ODI squad means that he is once again a contender for the number four spot when the three-match series against England begins on July 12.

Virat Kohli's concern: The middle order

With Rahul in contention for a starting spot in the middle order, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik will be left jostling for two spots. As part of the full-strength Indian side, the three had featured in the T20 series against South Africa. Raina had been used as a pinch-hitting, aggressive number three option, but the current situation might warrant a re-think.
 
Nevertheless, Raina provides a sixth bowling option as well. India would also not want to drop Dinesh Karthik, who is in sizzling form since March. It could mean that Pandey eventually warms the bench, despite scoring 255 runs in 8 T20Is this year against South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at an average of 85.

 
Can India's second-choice fast bowlers prove their worth in limited overs cricket?
 
On the bowling front, Kohli will be tempted to field both leg-spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, giving them an early taste of conditions. However, the pace department is an area of concern, as the second-choice fast bowlers have not enjoyed enough game time. Since the 2017 Champions Trophy, India have played 32 ODIs and 18 T20Is, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah handling the new ball in 26 ODIs and 9 T20Is, respectively. Umesh Yadav last played an ODI in September 2017 against Australia at Bengaluru. Siddharth Kaul was in the Indian squad for the home ODIs against Sri Lanka in December, but was not picked ahead of Kumar-Bumrah.

 
Kaul is also yet to make his T20I debut, while Yadav played his only T20I back in 2012. It remains to be seen if the think tank will bench either Kumar or Bumrah against Ireland to give other pacers some much needed overs.
For Ireland, skipper Gary Wilson, former captain William Porterfield and all-rounder Kevin O'Brien are the ones to have T20 experience against an Indian team. Meanwhile, 31-year-old Punjab-born off-spinner Simranjit Singh will enjoy the spotlight of playing against his erstwhile nation. Meanwhile, Joshua Little and Andy McBrine have been included in the 14-man Ireland squad. Joshua  Little, 18, is a left-arm fast bowler who has played only four T20s so far - two of them T20Is - and was part of the Ireland team in the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand in January 2018. McBrine, 25, is an offspinning allrounder who has already played 30 ODIs and 19 T20Is, though his last T20I was in March 2017.

 
India vs Ireland head to head

India and Ireland do not have a rich playing history. Despite touring England in 2011 and 2014, this is the Men in Blue's first visit here since 2007 when they played a solitary ODI at Belfast. Rohit, Dhoni and Karthik were part of that squad, albeit Karthik was picked ahead of Dhoni in the playing eleven for that one-off game. Overall, India and Ireland have played only four times, in three ODIs (the other two during 2011 and 2015 ODI World Cups) and a T20I in 2009 during the World T20 in England. India had won that game at Nottingham by eight wickets with Rohit scoring an unbeaten half-century and Zaheer Khan took 4 wickets. Dhoni and Raina are the other current' members from that playing eleven nine years ago.

 
India playing 11 probables: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah
 
Ireland playing 11 probables: Gary Wilson (c & wk), Kevin O'Brien, William Porterfield, Paul Stirling, Simi Singh, George Dockrell, Boyd Rankin, James Shannon, Stuart Thompson, Andrew Balbirnie, Peter Chase
 
What would the weather condition be  in Dublin during India vs Ireland first T20Is match

The humidity levels will be around 50 per cent. With the game being an afternoon fixture, the temperature is expected to be around 24 degree Celsius. There is no forecast of rain and it promises to be a pleasant day in Dublin.

 
Here are a few things to know about India and Ireland team ahead of first T20Is to be played at Malahide Cricket Club Ground or The Village in Dublin on Wednesday, and who has said what before the clash:
 
You pass Yo-Yo test, you play for India, says Shastri, Kohli endorses: Former chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil may have been scathing in his criticism for YoYo test being a benchmark for getting into the Indian team but head coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli made their stand clear -- you pass the test, you play for India. While Shastri in his inimitable manner was clear that Yo-Yo test is here to stay, Kohli said that one should look at it as a "hard call" that benefits the team rather than being emotional. When Shastri was asked at the team's pre-departure media interaction ahead of the UK tour, he was straight forward in his response. "You have a certain ability but if you are fit then you can enhance it. That's why we emphasise on YoYo test. If anyone thinks that this is a one-off thing, he is sadly mistaken. He can take a walk," Shastri said in his typical no-nonsense style. "Philosophy is simple -- you pass you play, you fail, you fail. This is not going to go anywhere. The captain leads from the front, selectors are on same page, entire team management is on the same page and boys have responded tremendously well," the former India captain made it clear as to where he stood on the issue.

 
Virat Kohli panicked while preparing for England tour, says Sourav Ganguly: A tough tour of England four years ago made Virat Kohli panicky while preparing for the upcoming series but former India captain Sourav Ganguly is happy that the star cricketer did not end up playing county cricket in his eagerness to be well-prepared. Kohli is a fantastic player. He will do well this time. I am happy that he did not play county cricket before the England series. I think he was eager to play county (ahead of the series) because he was panicky after not having a good tour last time around. He is too good a player to miss out this time, Ganguly told PTI. Kohli's much-hyped stint at Surrey was eventually ruled out after he suffered a neck injury.

 
Current pace attack is most complete India has ever had, says Sachin Tendulkar: The legendary Sachin Tendulkar feels India has headed to the gruelling tour of England with "the most complete fast-bowling attack in many many years", a "luxury" that was not there during his 24 years in international cricket. India are starting their nearly three-month tour of United Kingdom with two T20 Internationals in Ireland from June 27 but all eyes will be on the five-Test series starting August 1 in Birmingham. "This is the most complete fast-bowling attack that India have had in many many years. In my assessment, this attack would go as one of the best," Tendulkar told PTI during an exclusive interaction. Read Sachin Tendulkar full interview here

 
Indian cricketer in Ireland squad for India T20: Indian-origin cricketer Simranjit Singh has been picked up by Ireland in their T20 squad ahead of the two-match series against India. The 31-year-old, who received an Irish citizenship last year, used to play cricket in Mohali and always wanted to play for India. "From the day I started playing cricket in Mohali, I always used to dream about playing for the Indian team. When I did not get my chance in Punjab cricket, I went to study in Ireland and now to get a chance to play against the Indian team at the same ground, where I used to play and train kids, is the biggest moment of my career," cricket.com.au quoted Simranjit Singh, as saying.