By:
Conor Martin
Ireland white-ball cricket captain Paul Stirling has admitted that his Ireland team are “underprepared” for their T20I series against England, which begins Wednesday, three months after Ireland played a men’s international fixture.
Ireland’s men have only played three games in full, losing another three to the weather when the West Indies toured in May and June. Their tour of Afghanistan was then cancelled by Cricket Ireland for “financial reasons”.
While England’s summer has been busy, they’re now given the chance to rest a few key players. Stirling and his men have been desperate for games and will be frustrated to see that the weather for every game of the three-match series is currently throwing up a poor forecast.
Ireland go into the first game as underdogs priced at 8/1 with Irish betting sites, while England are big favourites to win the first T20 at Malahide.
https://twitter.com/cricketireland/status/1967955381407158509
Ireland ‘underprepared’ but will give it a good go against England
Ahead of Wednesday’s first T20, Stirling admitted that he and Ireland are underprepared against a talented opponent that has had a busy summer: “We’ve probably been underprepared would be the honest answer.
“It’s nice to get together as a squad for the first time in about four months. We got a little bit of work done yesterday at the HPC [High-Performance Centre], not much done on Sunday, and a good session in today. That’s about all we’ve had.
“We’re looking forward to giving it a good go against England. We’ll need things to go our way, probably. It’s just nice to get together. It feels like the beginning of our winter programme, rather than the end of our summer programme. That’s the stage we’re at. Certainly, it feels like the start of something, rather than the end.”
Lack of international cricket has left Ireland ‘disappointed’
But Ireland’s white-ball captain Stirling mentioned that his players were “obviously disappointed” at a lack of international cricket in 2025 and added that he and his team-mates can’t hide that disappointment:”We can’t hide that fact,” he said: “We want to play as much cricket as we can. We’re going to be judged on our performances on the pitch and to not have consistent cricket, which allows you to bring the best of yourselves throughout a summer, is tough.
“It is tricky, because you’re expected to deal with those things no matter what. That’s why international cricket is so hard: no-one will remember this in 18-24 months, when we hopefully do have cricket, that, ‘Oh, by the way, their preparation wasn’t good in 2025.’ It’ll be, ‘X, Y and Z didn’t do this, didn’t do that.’ It’s really important that you’re able to use your experience.
“It’s not ideal. There’s no hiding that fact. We want to play more cricket and fingers crossed, hopefully, we’re going to travel to Bangladesh in October-November, from there, for 12 or 18 months, it’s packed full of cricket. That’s our hope. But it’s certainly disappointing that in the summer months in Ireland, as a professional cricketer, you’re not playing enough cricket.”
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