Rain washed off the third match, enabling India to clinch the T20Is against Ireland 2-0. Here are the key takeaways from the three-match series:
Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.
Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna are back
Bumrah returned after to international cricket after 11 months. Prasidh, after two days short of a year. In T20Is, Bumrah led India for the first time, and Prasidh played for the first time.
Both men impressed on this tour. Bumrah finished the series with scarcely believable figures of 8-1-39-4; Prasidh, with a more ‘human’ 8-0-61-4. If Bumrah prised out two wickets in his first over upon comeback, Prasidh at times had the Irish batters too late on their strokes.
In ODIs, they will have to bowl spells longer than two overs, and field for three and a half hours. The Asia Cup will test both men, but as of now, India can breathe a sigh of relief.
Ravi Bishnoi is very good
India have two all-rounders who bowl left-arm spin, taking the ball away from the right-hander. If they still pick a leg-spinner (they did not at the Asia Cup), it will be Yuzvendra Chahal.
With rain in the air, Paul Stirling turned to Josh Little, his main strike bowler, for a third over: Ireland needed wickets, and it made no sense to keep Little for the death.
India needed to be 33-0 after six overs to win the match – in other words, a maiden over would have sealed it. But Yashasvi Jaiswal’s four and six (was it necessary?) took them to 45-0, past the par score for seven overs. A single off the first ball took them past even that.
Yet again, all India needed was to play out the five balls. But Jaiswal fell, trying to mistime a pull. India were still safe, for the par score for seven overs was 42-1, but things got interesting when Tilak Varma fell first ball, caught behind trying to leg-glance.
India were now 46-2, exactly what they needed to win. They got a single. A wicket at that point would have cost them the match, for rain fell immediately after the match, and they scraped home by two runs.
Twenty20 cricket demands high-risk batting – just not always.
