2 hours ago
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The sun is indeed beating down in Malahide, the word is they will use the same pitch from the first game so a slightly worn surface for the batters and potentially something for the bowlers to work with. The players are assembling – we’ll be underway in about seven minutes.
Those teams in full:
Ireland: 1 Paul Stirling (c), 2 Ross Adair, 3 Harry Tector, 4 Lorcan Tucker (wk), 5 Curtis Campher, 6 Ben Calitz, 7 Gareth Delany, 8 Barry McCarthy, 9 Matthew Humphreys, 10 Craig Young, 11 Ben White
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell (c), 4 Jordan Cox, 5 Rehan Ahmed, 6 Tom Banton, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Luke Wood, 11 Sonny Baker
England to bowl first!
Jacob Bethell calls the coin correctly loses the toss for the first time in his nascent captaincy career and England are going to have a bowl first in Malahide. Sonny Baker is indeed given his T20I debut so we’ll see him in action very soon. Jordan Cox comes in for Sam Curran who has headed home for an undisclosed personal reason, we wish him well.
For Ireland – all rounder Ben Calitz is also handed a bayboo and leggie Ben White is given the nod too, George Dockrell and Graham Hume miss out.
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the third and final T20 International between Ireland and England from Malahide. Good news – the sun is shining! A glorious day in Ireland should see us get a full match in after Friday’s washout.
The word is we should be seeing Sonny Baker given his T20I debut, he seems to be a thoroughly well rounded young man and there’s no doubt he is incredibly talented, but, I’m sure he and everyone else in the England set up are hoping it goes a darn sight better than his ODI debut against South Africa a week or so ago when he chalked up the most expensive bowling figures for and England ODI debutant.
Taha Hashim spoke to young Sonny about it all the other day:
“All of the guys after were like: ‘Mate, defending 130, come on: unless we got five [wickets] in the powerplay, we were never really in it,’” says Baker. “Up the hill at Headingley can be tough sometimes. Markram fancied a piece and got a few away and he’s a very, very good player.
“We had to have really aggressive fields and then anytime the ball beats anyone inside the ring in the off-side, it’s four. From a figures point of view, it was not exactly how I’d planned my debut going, but not all good experiences are enjoyable experiences.
“At the time, I was thinking: ‘Fifteen an over for my first three or four overs is not what I had in mind.’ But in the long run, it’ll be a good thing.”
Baker is an upbeat character and likes to keep notes on his bowling plans, listing down ground dimensions, different grips, analysis on batters. “I try to be objective when I’m doing reviews and I don’t mind being detail-oriented,” he says. “[Harry Brook] was chatting to me after that and said: ‘What did you write down in your notebook after that game?’ I just said: ‘Shit happens.’
The game starts at 13:30pm, I’ll be back with the teams and the result of the toss very shortly.
