The Indian cricket team will enter a new era in T20Is with the upcoming two-match T20I series against Ireland in Belfast.
This will be India’s first T20I series since winning the Men’s ICC 20 World Cup 2026 final against New Zealand in Ahmedabad in March, and there will be plenty of changes from the side that took the field in that memorable final.
For starters, we have a new captain: Shreyas Iyer has replaced Suryakumar Yadav as India’s T20I skipper, and SKY has been dropped from the squad altogether following a prolonged lean patch with the bat.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are rested, while Hardik Pandya and Varun Chakravarthy will miss the T20I series against Ireland owing to injuries, and Kuldeep Yadav and Rinku Singh have been dropped from the T20I setup.
Among the picked players, the most hype is surrounding Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who has earned his maiden India call-up following a blockbuster IPL 2026 season.
IND vs IRE: Will Vaibhav Sooryavanshi make his India debut in the T20I series against Ireland?
It seems unlikely that Sooryavanshi will get to play in the first T20I against Ireland because India’s top three of Samson, Abhishek, and Kishan is a well settled combination, and all three are coming off terrific performances in the T20 World Cup.
Sooryavanshi had a thunderous IPL season, where he broke Chris Gayle’s record for the most sixes in a single IPL edition, and then followed it up with a 29-ball 94 against Sri Lanka A in the A-team tri-series final, which included him smashing the record for the fastest List-A half-century, achieving the fifty-run milestone in only 11 balls.
Despite all of this, Sooryavanshi is likely to be on the bench at least for the 1st T20I against Ireland as Samson and Abhishek are the first-choice openers.
Apart from Iyer and Sooryavanshi, the other additions to the squad are Nitish Kumar Reddy, who will take Hardik’s position in the line-up, Ravi Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, and Harshit Rana, who is back after recovering from an injury that had him miss the T20 World Cup and the IPL.
Apart from the Sooryavanshi conundrum, Gautam Gambhir and Iyer wouldn’t have much of a headache in selecting the line-up for the 1st T20I.
Following the top three would be Iyer and Tilak Varma, who is the vice-captain. Reddy and Shivam Dube will be the seam-bowling all-rounders, while Axar Patel will be the spin-bowling all-rounder.
Harshit is expected to slot in at No. 9, to be followed by Arshdeep Singh and one of Prasidh Krishna or Ravi Bishnoi. Gambhir, though, would be tempted to fit Washington Sundar somewhere, but that for now seems difficult to envisage.
IND vs IRE: India Playing XI For 1st T20I – Predicted
Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (C), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna/Ravi Bishnoi
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