India vs Ireland Predictions & Betting tips - ICC Men's T20 World Cup

Prediction published on 03/06/2024, 05:39  by Devesh Jaganath | Modified on 05/06/2024 at 03:51

India will get their ICC T20 World Cup campaign started on Wednesday when they take on Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium. These two sides have been drawn into Group A, which also features USA, Canada, and Pakistan. After the disappointment of losing the ODI World Cup final, India bounced back in style to beat Australia 4-1 in a five-match T20 series at the end of last year. They then tied 1-1 with the Proteas in South Africa before completing a clean sweep of Afghanistan at the start of the year. In the World Cup warm-ups, the Men in Blue looked in great nick, beating Bangladesh by 60 runs, and are now one of the favourites to claim the T20 World Cup title. One player to keep an eye on this year is Virat Kohli, who is coming into this competition off the back of a sensational Indian Premier League campaign. The former skipper ended as the orange cap holder for the second time in his career and scored an incredible 741 in 15 innings at an average of 61. The Indians are massive favourites to win this match. 

Meanwhile, Ireland come into this competition as the potential dark horse in this group and have been steadily improving year-on-year in recent times. They are now up to 11th in the world according to the ICC’s T20 team rankings, only marginally behind tenth-placed Afghanistan. The Green and Whites’ preparation for this tournament included 2-1 series losses to Afghanistan and Pakistan in March and May, respectively, but they were far too good for both the Netherlands and Scotland last month, beating both in one-off tournaments. However, their final World Cup warm-up match ended in a 41-run defeat to Sri Lanka, though there were plenty of positives to take from that performance, especially in the bowling department, where Barry McCarthy and Joshua Little took two wickets apiece. Ireland have faced India in seven T20 matchups in the past but have never beaten them.