🏏ICC T20I Men's WC 2024: Match 8: India vs Ireland @ 8:00 PM IST🏏 - Page 6

Morning (evening depending on where you are) everyone! It's India's opening game of the T20 World Cup, and they're up against Ireland in New York where the [drop-in] pitches and the outfield have been in much focus. Equally in focus is India's batting combination and their approach, which they've tried to reinvent since their semi-final pounding at the hands of England in Adelaide two years ago.

I'm Shashank Kishore bringing you the coverage from rainy Bengaluru. Joining me shortly all the way from London is Alan Gardner. Stay locked, let's have some fun along the way.

Sidharth Monga , our correspondent in New York is just checking in to the Nassua County Stadium. "It's overcast, but not cold or anything. Really pleasant cricket-playing weather. And whatever commentators might say, it's not humid or hot. Crowd coming in and cheering on the Indians warming up."

It's overcast, but not cold or anything. Really pleasant cricket-playing weather. And whatever commentators might say, it's not humid or hot. Crowd coming in and cheering on the Indians warming up."

Thank you for the tag

Go India Go

All the best for T20 World Cup 2024....

No pressure outside India...play freely...

Big cheers from the supporters as Rohit, Bumrah and Jaiswal walk out to the middle. There are overcast skies above Nassau County currently, but there's no rain expected. Crowd roars again - this time for Kohli walking out.

Ireland are coming into the tournament on the back of some serious form, having won four of the five most-recent T20Is. This includes a stunning win against Pakistan at home in Malahide. They've proved during the course of this run that they're capable of closing out games from crunch moments. Can they sustain that form?

Their first outing here in the USA was a warm-up, which they lost by 41 runs to Sri Lanka. But you can't read a lot into that result simply because everyone was given an opportunity to have a hit and get into rhythm.

So far, this hasn't been a World Cup for big scores and Ricky Ponting wants teams to temper expectations on the kind of totals they should aim for.

Naresh: "Completely locked with you Shashank and Alan from neon lit office, stupid work in the way of fun." -- At least gone are the days where companies blocked cricket websites from their network to boost productivity.

An ESPNcricinfo regular Mustafa Moudi, quite predictably, opens our comments: "Don't understand the criticism about the low totals this tournament. Why do you need easy batting surfaces for the World Cup? Its a big tournament, so whats the harm if the Pitches are challenging? Let the batsmen will batter skills score and blind sloggers suffer."

An ESPNcricinfo regular Mustafa Moudi, quite predictably, opens our comments: "Don't understand the criticism about the low totals this tournament. Why do you need easy batting surfaces for the World Cup? Its a big tournament, so whats the harm if the Pitches are challenging? Let the batsmen will batter skills score and blind sloggers suffer."

Ireland are coming into the tournament on the back of some serious form, having won four of the five most-recent T20Is. This includes a stunning win against Pakistan at home in Malahide. They've proved during the course of this run that they're capable of closing out games from crunch moments. Can they sustain that form?

Their first outing here in the USA was a warm-up, which they lost by 41 runs to Sri Lanka. But you can't read a lot into that result simply because everyone was given an opportunity to have a hit and get into rhythm.

So far, this hasn't been a World Cup for big scores and Ricky Ponting wants teams to temper expectations on the kind of totals they should aim for.