Key events
The teams
India have left out Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal. That means Virat Kohli will open with Rohit Sharma.
No surprise in the Ireland side.
India Rohit (c), Kohli, Suryakumar, Dube, Pant (wk), Hardik, Jadeja, Axar, Bumrah, Arshdeep, Siraj.
Ireland Stirling (c), Balbirnie, Tucker (wk), Tector, Campher, Dockrell, Delany, Adair, McCarthy, Little, White.
India win the toss and bowl
The match referee David Boon originally said that Ireland had won the toss, but it was a genuine mix-up on his part. Paul Stirling called heads, the coin landed tails-up.
âWeâre not too sure about the conditions,â says the India captain Rohit Sharma, âso having a score in front of us will be ideal.â
Stirling says Ireland would also have bowled.
âI recently learned that the expression âwinging itâ refers to under-rehearsed actors rushing into the wings for a butcherâs at a well-thumbed prompt book (the source of all the Shakespeare plays we have) for their next few lines,â writes Gary Naylor. âThose 17th-century prompt books are 21st century iPads in the hands of analysts and powered by AI arenât they?
ââOld fashions please me best; I am not so nice
To change true rules for odd inventions.ââ
Every industry has its chancers â youâre reading one of them â but my instinct is that the best cricket analysts are worth their weight in World Cups. Iâm not sure England would have won in 2019 without Nathan Leamon.
Lads lads lads lads lads
Andy Bull + cricket = the healthy kind of clickbait
The weather forecast
Itâs okay. Overcast, but okay. Whoever wins the toss will have a tricky decision. Actually, thatâs nonsense â both captains have a tricky decision because they have to work on the assumption theyâll win it, otherwise theyâd be winging it, and thatâs no way to achieve success in modern society. I suspect whoever wins it will bowl first, but with the nagging feeling that chasing 140 could be slippery.
Preamble
Good day one and all. We can all surely agree that, in the last decade or so, the world has taken a very weird turn. In centuries to come, if there are centuries to come, when historians reflect on the years 2014-23, the thing that will cause the most head-scratching is painfully obvious: that India didnât win a major ICC competition in that time. When you consider their power and their population, their brilliance and their Bumrah, itâs almost unfathomable that the 2013 Champions Trophy was their last major honour.
Indiaâs latest attempt to rule world cricket on the field begins with a match against Ireland in New York. The pitch for the first game here, between Sri Lanka and South Africa, was unusual and awkward, so it would be unwise to make too many predictions. Except maybe a Virat Kohli fifty; thatâs usually a safe bet. At the age of 35 he has found another level as a T20 batter, which is a chilling thought for everyone else.
As well as Kohli, India have Rohit Sharma, four brilliant spinners, the advantage of knowing where they will play their semi-final (Guyana, often spin-friendly). They have Jasprit Bumrah, the worldâs No1 T20 batter in Suryakumar Yadav, a fit-again Rishabh Pant, and yes I really could go on.
In short, India have all the tools to win the competition. But having the tools has never been the problem.
Play starts at 3.30pm BST, 10.30am in New York
