Well, well, well. There will be two debutants for India in the IND vs IRE 2nd T20I, but neither of them will be Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Minutes before the toss in Belfast, Prince Yadav and Suryansh Shedge were handed their maiden T20I caps. The former had made his India and ODI debut earlier in the month against Afghanistan, but Shedge hasn’t represented India before.
Prince Yadav & Suryansh Shedge make India debuts
Prince and Shedge come in for Prasidh Krishna and Washington Sundar, both of whom underperformed two days ago at the same venue. Unlike Washington, a spin-bowling all-rounder, Shedge is a part-time fast bowler and right-handed batter. He impressed for India A recently, and after an injury ruled Nitish Kumar Reddy out of the Ireland series, he was added to the squad.
Meanwhile, Prince was picked off the back of an impressive performance for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season. He didn’t do that well against Afghanistan, but his selection was based on his T20 prowess to begin with.
“He’s a powerful, destructive batter. A sensational youngster who has been scoring runs in domestic cricket and in the IPL. He’s got a tremendous amount of experience in youth cricket. He’s performed in the A tours, and is reaping the benefits,” Shreyas Iyer said on Shedge after opting to bowl.
“It’s his first game, so I don’t want to put him under that much pressure. It’s important that he comes out here and gains the experience of what is there to offer. He has seen how we played in the previous game, and he’s smart enough to adapt to it,” India’s T20I captain said on Prince.
Sooryavanshi to debut against England?
Shreyas wasn’t asked about Sooryavanshi’s absence. But in the previous game, he’d made it clear that the management would back the proven batters. The same doesn’t go for bowlers and all-rounders, who are more injury-prone and are rested or rotated. Considering India will play 5 T20Is against England next month, Sooryavanshi might make his debut then.
India’s Playing XI vs Ireland 2nd T20I
Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma (wk), Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav
Bench: Ravi Bishnoi, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar
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