The first of the two T20I matches between Ireland and India will be played today at the Malahide club ground in Dublin on June 26, 2022. This is a series in which the Indian team is expected to field some new faces given that a host of first-choice players are unavailable.
The likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and Jasprit Bumrah are preparing for the Test match against England, while KL Rahul and Deepak Chahar are out injured. The Indian team didn’t make any changes to their XI in the five T20Is against South Africa and it is expected that some changes will be made for Ireland matches.
Hardik Pandya will be leading the Indian team for the first time ever. And keeping this in mind, here is the COC predicted playing XI for the first T20I against Ireland.
While Ishan Kishan is expected to continue opening the innings for India, his partner Ruturaj Gaikwad might be given an extended run in Ireland matches even though he had a poor outing in the five-T20I series.
Otherwise, India has the option to use Rahul Tripathi as the opener as he did extremely well for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2022. Suryakumar Yadav will be back after missing the South Africa series with an injury.
With Rishabh Pant prepping for the England Test match, either of Sanju Samson or Deepak Hooda is expected to replace him in the Indian playing XI for the Ireland T20I. Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik will be a dangerous duo for Ireland to contend with given the small ground in Dublin given their hitting abilities which were on display against South Africa.
Yuzvendra Chahal and Akshar Patel are expected to be the spinners for India as they did well against South Africa.
Player of the Series against South Africa, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead the fast-bowling attack. As for his partners, India has the options of Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, and Harshal Patel.
As Hardik Pandya said that there will be a couple of debuts in this series, expect either Arshdeep or Umran or both to make their debuts in this series.
COC Predicted India Playing XI for first T20I vs Ireland:
Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya (C), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Akshar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
