Published: Jun 18, 2015, 01:22 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 18, 2015, 01:25 PM (IST)
The ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2015 promises to be an amazing tournament where the top associates of world cricket will be pitted against each other to discern who qualify for the big league. Ireland and Scotland will go into the tournament with extra confidence that they will gain with the exposure of three Twenty20 Internationals.
The series is scheduled to be played in Ireland and undoubtedly, the home side will be favourites to win the series. However, Scotland are not ones to let their opposition off lightly. Both teams will have players returning from the Natwest T20 Blast in the UK and hence, the quality of cricket can be expected to be high.
Ireland will be captained by William Porterfield, while Scotland have Preston Mommsen at the helm. Both teams boast some highly skilled limited-overs players as seen in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
On the whole, though, Ireland are the better side, while Scotland are potent in certain departments. Ireland’s batting lineup can easily match — and even surpass — the lower-ranked Test sides. The top order, studded with the quality of Porterfield, Ed Joyce, and Paul Stirling can spark envy among most associate sides.
The same can’t be said about the Scottish batting, though. Kyle Coetzer is a fine player but the Scots don’t have anyone else who stands out. However, they are surely a better bowling side than their opponents.
Both sides have fairly decent all-rounders, but Scotland rank highly when it comes to form. Richie Berington and Josh Davey can be threatening with bat as well as ball. Ireland’s all-rounders Kevin O’Brien and John Mooney have been excellent in the past, but have slacked off lately.
Overall, this series should be quite nicely balanced, and promises to be entertaining. But more importantly, it will serve as a goodt warm up for the sides leading into the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers.
Squads:
Ireland: Kevin O’Brien(c), Andrew Balbirnie, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Tyrone Kane, Andy McBrine, Graeme McCarter, John Mooney, Andrew Poynter, Stuart Poynter(w), Max Sorensen, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Craig Young.
Scotland: Preston Mommsen(c), Richie Berrington, Matthew Cross, Freddie Coleman, Josh Davey, Con de Lange(w), Alasdair Evans, Michael Leask, Gavin Main, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt.
Time: 17:30 local | 16:30 GMT | 22:00 IST
(Rishad D’Souza, a reporter with CricketCountry, gave up hopes of playing Test cricket after a poor gully-cricket career. He now reports on the sport. You can follow @RishadDsouza on Twitter)
