Ireland name World Twenty20 squad

CRICKET Ireland has announced their 15 man squad for the upcoming World T20 in Bangladesh, which will be their 4^th global event in this format.

With many expecting changes after being knocked out of the Nagico Super50 after the first two group games, it has come as a surprise that the 15 man squad that played in Port of Spain will go the sub continent for the event starting on the 16^th of March.

The squad contains significant experience, as six player from Ireland’s debut at the World T20 in 2009 were named amongst the touring party.

After the announcement Ireland coach Phil Simmonds said ‘that was always going to be difficult for anyone to break into the final squad given the fact that we’re in the middle of the off-season back in Ireland’.

After next week’s ODI series in Jamaica against the West Indies, Simmonds and his squad will travel to the UAE for a week-long training camp. They will then travel onto Bangladesh where they will play a series on warm up games before the first round opener on St Patrick’s Day against Zimbabwe which they hope will be the start of a successful tournament.

“Indeed, if we progress from the initial group stage, we’ll be going into the games against Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand and England with a lot of game time under our belts, which could give us a serious advantage. However, we’ll be concentrating on the round one games first - that’s the first hurdle for us,” said the Trinidadian.

Irish Captain William Porterfield will be playing in his 7^th global event and is hoping that he and his team mates will continue to put Irish cricket on the map.

“We’re all determined to take Irish cricket to the next level. We’re not happy with just qualifying for finals any more. We want to win games while we’re here and climb the rankings. We have players who I believe can make a major impact in the tournament, as we showed in our domination of the qualifying competition in the UAE in November.”

Ireland squad for World T20: William Porterfield (captain), (Warwickshire), Alex Cusack (Clontarf), George Dockrell (Somerset),  Ed Joyce (Sussex), Andrew McBrine (Donemana), Tim Murtagh (Middlesex), Kevin O’Brien (Railway Union), Niall O’Brien (Leicestershire),  Andrew Poynter (Clontarf), Max Sorensen (The Hills), James Shannon (Instonians), Paul Stirling (Middlesex), Stuart Thompson (Eglinton), Gary Wilson (Surrey), Craig Young (Bready)