Ireland have their experience from the 2022 T20 World Cup on their side when they face heavyweights Australia on Wednesday
Still reeling from a disappointing first-up loss to co-hosts Sri Lanka, Ireland have set their sights on beating Australia for the first time in international cricket in Wednesday’s T20 World Cup clash in Colombo.
While Australia are yet to begin their campaign as the last of the 20 teams to get going in the tournament, Ireland come into the match on the back of a narrow loss to Sri Lanka at the same venue three days ago.
And it’s one that Irish head coach Heinrich Malan believes they let slip with their skill execution when the game was there to be won letting them down.
Having restricted Sri Lanka to 6-163 at R. Premadasa Stadium, Harry Tector (40) and Lorcan Tucker (21) had Ireland on track until they collapsed late, losing their last seven wickets for 30 runs to fall 20 short.
“There was some real disappointment at the end of that game,” Malan said. “For a large part of that game, we were playing exactly the way we wanted to play from a planning and preparation point of view.
“A little bit of the execution throughout that critical period has let us down.
“We’ve had to turn that around pretty quickly over the past 24 hours and the lads are really excited about the challenge (of playing Australia).”
Ireland threw 13 overs of spin at the home side to keep their batters in check after opting to bowl first, but it was Sri Lankan spinners Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga (three wickets apiece) and Dunith Wellalage (1-28) who turned the match in their side’s favour as they claimed the first seven wickets of the run chase.
Malan said they had learned from how Sri Lanka deployed their spinners towards the back end of the innings and would take that into their clash with 2021 T20 world champions, who were spun out by Pakistan in their three-nil series loss leading into this tournament.
“We learned a little bit from the way that Sri Lanka went about their business at the back end; they took all the pace off the ball,” Malan said.
“That’s something for us to reflect on and we’ve spoken about that.
“Hopefully (against Australia) on a surface that’s probably going to be a little bit slower than the one we played on the other night, it’s definitely something that we’ve added to the thinking of our seamers and some of our spinners to be able to bowl later on in the innings.
“If you look at the makeup of our side (against Sri Lanka), it reflected what we were expecting (from the pitch), and our third seamer didn’t bowl.
“Looking at the surface (a day out from the match against Australia), it probably looks a little bit drier than what it looked the other night. So I think it’s probably going to be a little bit slower again and both teams will obviously set up accordingly.”
Ireland have faced Australia only once in any format in men’s internationals in almost a decade, withdrawing from hosting them in 2024 due to financial reasons.
While a missed opportunity given they’ve now landed in the same group for this World Cup, Malan said they still were “very clear … in the plans that (they’ve) got in place for some of the Australian players”.
“You always want to play the top sides in any format and obviously us not being able to host that series was very disappointing,” he said.
“We played them in the 2022 World Cup in Australia, which was a great occasion, and we took a fair bit out of that game. Hopefully we can apply some of those learnings in the game on Wednesday … and the boys can execute their skills well.”
Ireland do have familiarity on their side from that 2022 encounter in Brisbane that they lost by 42 runs, with nine players in their XI for that match returning to their squad for this year’s tournament.
Australia are also without star fast bowling trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins in this World Cup, while Tim David will sit out the match as he returns from a hamstring injury, with all four having played against Ireland last time.
“Whatever Australian team rocks up will be a very competitive team, but you look at some of the names that are proven performers over the last couple of years (and they’re) not in that side,” Malan said.
“And you look at our side, we’ve got some proven performers too, so it sets up to be an exciting challenge and one that we’re very much looking forward to.”
2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Australia squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserve: Sean Abbott
Australia’s Group Stage fixtures
February 11: v Ireland, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo (8:30pm AEDT)
February 13: v Zimbabwe, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo (4:30pm AEDT)
February 16: v Sri Lanka, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 17, 12:30am AEDT)
February 20: v Oman, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 21, 12:30am AEDT)
Australia’s Super Eight fixtures
(Assuming all seeded teams qualify)
February 23: Australia (X2) v West Indies (X3), Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai (Feb 24, 12:30am AEDT)
February 26: India (X1) v Australia (X2), MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (Feb 27, 12:30am AEDT)
March 1: Australia (X2) v South Africa (X4), Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, 8:30pm AEDT
Click here for the full tournament schedule
All matches will be broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video
