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India looks for a positive start

Ireland aiming to rekindle World Cup memories

DOING IT RIGHT: Fielding coach Robin Singh will be a great help to the Indian team in its practice sessions during the long tour of Ireland and England.

Belfast: A revitalised India will be seeking to launch its lengthy tour of Ireland and England on a positive note when it takes on World Cup giant-killer Ireland in a one-off limited overs cricket match here on Saturday.

India, which will then take on South Africa in a three-match series here followed by a one-off ODI against Pakistan in Scotland and a full-fledged series against England over the next two months, would be hoping that the remote venue of Belfast would set the tone for the gruelling season ahead.

In a country where soccer and rugby are a passion, cricket suddenly seems to have caught the imagination of the people here, thanks to Ireland’s splendid run in its World Cup debut a little over two months ago.

The Indians are not only loving their anonymity and the chance to walk down the streets freely, but they are also going about their task in a business like manner.

The few training sessions they have had in the last 48 hours have been intense with every player keen to shake off the rust and get into the groove at the earliest.

Weather permitting, the Indians’ opening game against Ireland might not stretch them too much, but after the horrors of the World Cup, Rahul Dravid and his team just cannot afford to take anything lightly.

The return of Sourav Ganguly at the top of the order gives the Indian batting a formidable look with Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh settled in the middle order.

Mahendra Dhoni, who now has the additional responsibility of being the vice-captain, can look to open up his shoulders against Ireland.

S. Sreesanth and Ajit Agarkar are vying for a place in the pace department along with Zaheer Khan and Rudra Pratap Singh while Ramesh Powar will be the lone spinner in the side. Ganguly too has expressed his desire to slip in a few overs for the side.

On the other hand, the host will be looking to rekindle the fond memories of its dream-run in the recent 2007 World Cup.

For the record, Trent Johnston’s supremely fit and committed bunch of cricketers set aside the challenge of Canada before stealing the thunder with a sensational tie against Zimbabwe.

More importantly, Ireland went on to knock down Pakistan, which made a shocking first-round exit like India, before upsetting the applecart of another Test playing nation in Bangladesh in its second round clash.

However, its team has undergone a sea change in the sense that no less than six players from the World Cup would be missing from its ranks for various reasons.

While players like Andre Botha, Dave Langford-Smith and Boyd Rankir have been laid low by injuries, all-rounder Peter Gillespie has called it a day since then.

Besides, its two key batsmen, Jeremy Bray and Eoin Morgan, have declared themselves unavailable for the match. Morgan, in fact, has opted out only because he is too keen to represent English county Middlesex eyeing a future in the England squad some day.

“The team is unrecognisable from the World Cup but I hope the boys who have been to the West Indies can led from the front and put up a strong performance,” said all-rounder Andrew White.

White, incidentally, was the star performer with the bat, scoring 40 off 46 balls for Ireland in its first-ever One-Day International at home against England last year.

Ireland might have undergone some changes, but White is pretty confident that his team’s World Cup experience will hold it in good stead.

Skipper Johnston, the O’Brien brothers Kevin and Niall, batsmen William Porterfield and allrounder Andrew White, who once shared the Northamptonshire dressing room with Ganguly, would do well to inspire the green horns in the side to give a good account of themselves in what will certainly be a big occasion for Ireland cricket.

Since Ireland will be playing only its second and third One-Day Internationals at home on Saturday and Sunday (against South Africa) respectively, the Ireland Cricket Union expects the Civil Service Cricket Club ground to wear a healthy look in the stands .

Then again, given the dicey nature of the weather this time of the year, the weather gods too have to be kind so that people come in large numbers.

Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan was yet to recover from a groin injury and seemed uncertain to play against Ireland.

“Zaheer Khan has had an injury coming here. So we are trying to just ease him into the tour. We are still trying to assess how well he progressed after two days of practice,” Dravid said on Friday.

“Both Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar can bowl a bit of seam and we have other options so we got to take a look at that.”

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