Ireland cricket team has already departed to Zimbabwe to be a part of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
The tournament will start in 8 days’ time and all the teams are preparing themselves well.
Before departing for the same, Ireland bowler Ben White spoke to the media. He said,
We’re just looking forward to get over there to play some intense cricket. We’ll be playing some of the world’s best teams in Sri Lanka and West Indies- but, hopefully, we can play our best and come away with World Cup qualification and be heading to India in October.
Adding further, he says,
Last time we were in Zimbabwe it was summer-time, so we expect conditions to be different-maybe not as sunny, but dry. The schedule is pretty intense, so there won’t be much personal time, but there may be a bit of X-box played and hopefully we can get out to a safari or two, but it’s going to be busy.
Meanwhile, White also revealed that he will be sharing rooms with Gareth Delany during the tournament.
Speaking to the media before departure to Zimbabwe, Delany said,
Our main aim is to qualify for a World Cup, that would be fantastic. It’s definitely going to be a competitive tournament, but we can take great confidence from the World Cup Super League- there were perhaps 5 or so games in that competition where we could have got across the line, but didn’t. Hopefully, we can be a little more clinical over the next few weeks. 50-over cricket is a roller-coaster- it usually has plenty of ups and downs during a match, so for a player it’s a lot more exciting to play at times than a T20.
Adding further, he said,
With a squad of 15 at a long tournament, you would hope to play a bit- but as a squad member, all you can do is be as prepared as best you can for when you get called up to play.
Ireland squad for ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier
Andrew Balbirnie (c), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Josh Little, Andy McBrine, Barry McCarthy, PJ Moor, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young
The format of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier explained
In this tournament, there are a total of 10 teams that have been split into two groups A and B.
Each of these groups contains 5 teams each and they will play against each other in the league stage.
Meanwhile, the top three teams from each group will make it to the Super Six stage.
After the Super Six stage, two teams will qualify for the final and after that both the finalists will qualify.
Moreover, this tournament will also use the DRS starting from the Super Six stage onwards which is a great plus.
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