Both Ireland and India are gearing up for their first world cup game in the T20 World Cup 2024, With all the excitement building, Ireland’s skipper, Paul Stirling, has voiced his frustration as his team was denied access to the pitch at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. This setback comes just before their crucial T20 World Cup 2024 opener against India.

The stadium is a new venue for both the Irish and Indian teams. Despite this, Stirling is particularly upset because Ireland needs to inspect the pitch to make informed decisions about their playing XI for the match scheduled on Wednesday.

“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 as quoted by Irish media.

“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.”

Despite the difficulties, Stirling believes that a strong performance against India will boost their confidence for the remaining group matches. He also expresses excitement about the unique opportunity to play a cricket game in New York, an experience he and the squad eagerly anticipate.

"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.

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.

Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.