India and Ireland are to play two T20Is on June 26 and 28 in Belfast.
Late on Wednesday night, Cricket Ireland (CI) announced that the two T20Is against India will start at 1.30 pm local time, or 6 pm IST.
T20I matches involving India typically begin at 7 p.m. IST, but in order to prevent conflict with Sunday's (June 28) India-Australia Women's T20 World Cup match, the start time has been purposefully moved forward by an hour.
At 7 p.m. IST, the pivotal match for Harmanpreet Kaur's India team is set to start at Lord's. Although there will still be some overlap between the two games, it makes sense that the timing was changed to reduce it. The start times of the India matches were decided after taking into account the Women's World Cup match, Cricket Ireland revealed to Cricbuzz.
Cricket Ireland has discussed the matter with the media partners Sony Sports, and though in an ideal scenario, the broadcasters would’ve liked a 7 pm IST start for India's T20Is, but Sony Sports is believed to have agreed to the revised timing to cut down the clash, even if only partially.
The five T20Is in England that follow the Ireland series had different start times.
While two of the matches will start at 7 p.m. IST (the second T20I in Manchester on July 4 and the fifth in Southampton on July 11), the other three, in Chester-le-Street, Nottingham, and Bristol, will start at 10 p.m. IST. The T20I series will be followed by three ODIs, each beginning at 3.30 p.m. IST.
In India, the England series will be aired by Sony Sports (linear) and JioStar (digital).
(Cricbuzz inputs)