EDINBURGH, Scotland – The Ireland Men’s squad has arrived in Edinburgh ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier, which takes place from 20-28 July 2023.
The action gets underway at 10.30am (local time) on Thursday 20 July, when Ireland take on Italy at the Goldenacre Cricket Ground.
Ireland will go into this tournament under a new skipper, as Paul Stirling takes up the reins following Andrew Balbirnie’s decision to step down from the white-ball captaincy after the recent ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe.
Spinner Gareth Delany has been ruled out of the tournament with a broken wrist, and has been replaced by 29 year-old slow left-arm orthodox bowler and middle-order batter Theo van Woerkom. Big-hitting Ross Adair of CIYMS also comes back into the squad along with Neil Rock of Rush CC.
The Qualifier
In the tournament itself, seven teams – Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Jersey, Scotland, and Ireland – will go head-to-head in 21 matches over eight days, in the race for two spots to what will be the biggest ever ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which will be held in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA) in June 2024.
• Fixtures for the Europe Regional Final can be found on the ICC website here
• ICC Men’s T20 World Cup West Indies & USA 2024 pathway can be downloaded here
All matches will be available to watch live on FanCode (India) and on ICC.tv (Ireland, the UK, and the rest of the world).
Ireland’s interim captain Paul Stirling said:
“After the performances put in by our lads at the T20 World Cup in Australia last year, we are keen to ensure we get back on the world stage again to showcase the talent that Irish cricket has within its ranks.
“T20 can be a very unpredictable format at times, so we’ll need to be at our best to succeed over the next 10 days in Scotland. Every squad at this Qualifier is here with the same objective – to qualify for the main event in the West Indies and the USA next year, so we expect tough, competitive cricket and won’t be taking any opponent lightly.”
IRELAND SQUAD
Paul Stirling (Captain), Andrew Balbirnie, George Dockrell, Curtis Campher, Ross Adair, Mark Adair, Theo van Woerkom, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Neil Rock, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, Craig Young, Graham Hume.
IRELAND’S FIXTURES
• Thursday 20 July: Ireland v Italy (Goldenacre: 10.30am Ireland time)
• Friday 21 July: Ireland v Denmark (Grange Cricket Club: 10.30am Ireland time)
• Sunday 23 July: Ireland v Austria (Grange Cricket Club: 10.30am Ireland time)
• Monday 24 July: Ireland v Jersey (Goldenacre: 3.30pm Ireland time)
• Thursday 27 July: Ireland v Germany (Goldenacre: 10.30am Ireland time)
• Friday 28 July: Ireland v Scotland (Grange Cricket Club: 3.30pm Ireland time)
BROADCAST DETAILS
All matches will be available to watch in Ireland and the UK on ICC.tv
OTHER SQUADS
Austria
Razmal Shigiwal (Captain), Mark Simpson-Parker, Shahil Momin, Armaan Randhawa, Ahsan Mirza, Umair Tariq, Aqib Iqbal, Iqbal Hossain, Amit Nathwani, Navin Wijesekera, Mehar Cheema, Jaweed Sadran, Adeel Tariq, Abdullah Akbarjan, Sahel Zadran.
Denmark
Hamid Shah (Captain), Surya Anand, Taranjit Bharaj, Saud Munir, Abdul Hashmi, Oliver Hald, Jonas Henriksen, Shangeev Thanikatihasan, Nicolaj Lægsgaard, Saif Ahmad, Saran Aslam, Abdullah Mahmood, Eshan Karimi, Musa Mahmood, Lucky Ali Malik.
Germany
Venkatraman Ganesan (Captain), Sahir Naqash, Harmanjot Singh, Vijayshankar Chikkannaiah, Abdul Shakoor, Sri Vishnu Elam Barathi, Muslim Yar Ashraf, Ghulam Ahmadi, Sachin Gangareddy, Zahid Zadran, Michael Richardson, Dieter Klein, Joshua van Heerden, Dylan Blignaut, Fasial bin Mubashir.
Italy
Gareth Berg (Captain), Marcus Campopiano, JP Meade, Harry Manenti, Justin Mosca, Ben Manenti, Anthony Mosca, Grant Stewart, Wayne Madsen, Crishan Kalugamage, Syed Naqvi, Manpreet Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Stefano Di Bartolomeo, Jaspreet Singh.
Jersey
Charles Perchard (Captain), Dominic Blampied, Elliot Miles, Rhys Palmer, Harrison Carlyon, Joshua Lawrenson, Charlie Brennan, Toby Britton, Asa Tribe, Julius Sumerauer, William Perchard, Zak Tribe, Jonty Jenner, Nicholas Greenwood, Benjamin Ward.
Scotland
Richie Berrington (Captain), Henry Munsey, Michael Leask, Gavin Main, Chris Sole, Christopher Greaves, Safyaan Sharif, Jack Jarvis, Matthew Cross, Tomas Mackintosh, Hamza Tahir, Mark Watt, Brandon McMullen, Oliver Hairs, Bradley Currie.
MATCH REPORTS
Ireland v Jersey
Gerard Mulreaney
Paul Stirling will lead the side
Yes
Connaught