Stirling frustrated as Ireland denied access to New York pitch ahead T20 World Cup clash against India

Ireland's captain, Paul Stirling, voiced frustration as his team was denied access to the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium pitch in New York ahead of their T20 World Cup 2024 match against India. I

India had already played a warm-up match against Bangladesh at the aforementioned venue.

Stirling stressed the importance of inspecting the pitch before finalizing their playing XI.

“We haven’t actually seen the ground and it doesn’t look like we’re going to before the game, so we’ve got to keep everyone waiting on the selection front until we’ve seen the pitch,” Stirling said.

“We’re down to 12 or 13 but you can’t make those sort of calls until you get to the day and seeing what the conditions are in front of us,” he added.

Stirling acknowledged the challenge India poses with their top bowlers and recent IPL experience, but he remains confident in Ireland's ability to perform strongly.

“India are a really difficult challenge - they’ve got a number of top, top bowlers, they’ve just come off the back of the IPL and we know what they bring is the highest quality in cricket standards," Stirling added.

“No matter what happens, if we put in a strong performance we’ll go in with confidence into the next three games of the group.

"I certainly never thought I would play a cricket game in New York in my life - it’s something I’m looking forward to and I know the rest of the squad are as well," he added.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma praised Ireland’s squad, noting that many Irish players participate in T20 leagues worldwide, making them formidable opponents.

“It is going to be a great game, they have a great team. They play a lot of T20 cricket and a lot of their players play around the world in leagues. It will be as competitive as we play with other oppositions. We have to be at our best. That is how T20 cricket goes. If we lose our focus, there is a chance we do not end up on the right side,” Rohit said.

Squads

Ireland: Paul Stirling (c), Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Andrew Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, Neil Rock, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White and Craig Young

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.