Ireland have announced their squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia, with Simi Singh getting the nod over Andy McBrine, as was reported by The Irish Times on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday morning, head coach Heinrich Malan explained his belief that Singh offers a greater wicket-taking threat when bowling to left-handed batters. This is in line with a recent shift in attitude to spin bowling upon the arrival of new spin coach Nathan Hauritz, to prioritise wickets rather than low economies.
The 15-player group also sees a return for Conor Olphert and Craig Young, who were both absent for last month’s 3-2 series win over Afghanistan at Stormont as they recovered from injury.
Singh retains his spot having replaced McBrine for the final two matches of that series.
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Graham Hume is another player who was involved against Afghanistan that misses out this time. As expected, Shane Getkate misses out with Stephen Doheny kept as batting cover due to his ability to also keep wicket, while David Delany’s international exile continues. Both Getkate and Delany impressed in recent intersquad games but always faced an uphill battle to force their way into the squad.
Ireland are set to depart for Australia on September 29th and will travel to Sydney for three warm-up matches hosted by Randwick Petersham Cricket Club.
They will then play two official warm-up matches in Melbourne against Namibia and Sri Lanka, before moving on to Hobart, where they open their first-round matches by facing Zimbabwe on October 17th. The other teams in Group A are Scotland and West Indies.
Ireland squad: Andrew Balbirnie (captain), Paul Stirling (vice-captain), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Stephen Doheny, Fionn Hand, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, Conor Olphert, Simi Singh, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Craig Young.
