Skipper Shreyas Iyer eyes new milestone ahead of Belfast's clash

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The first T20I match between Team India and Ireland is scheduled to be played on Friday at the Stormont Cricket Ground in Belfast.

Ahead of the match, fans will keep a tab on Team India’s newly appointed T20I skipper Shreyas Iyer. The right-handed batsman will be eager to deliver a big performance after being trusted by Team India’s think tank.

During the match, Shreyas will be eyeing a new milestone in his international career. He is falling short of just 50 runs from achieving the feat of completing 5000 international runs for India.

So far, the Mumbai-born cricketer has garnered 4950 runs in 144 international matches for the national side. With a top score of an unbeaten 128 runs, the 31-year-old cricketer also has six centuries and 36 half-centuries to his name.

Additionally, cricket fans will be excited to see teen superstar Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. The swashbuckling left-handed batsman will make his debut in T20 Internationals for India. He has been a promising talent and has showcased consistency in white-ball cricket. It will be interesting to see if he tastes success in his debut match by opening the innings along with explosive batsman Abhishek Sharma.

Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) opening batsman Sooryavanshi, who was the top run-getter in the concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 with 776 runs, hammered 211 runs in the recent tri-series in Sri Lanka with an impressive strike-rate of 200.95. 

Earlier, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy was ruled out of the upcoming white-ball tours of Ireland and England. He will not participate in both series due to the left quadriceps injury that he sustained during the third ODI match against Afghanistan.

Mumbai’s Suryansh Shedge has been named Reddy’s replacement.

IND vs IRE 1st T20I: Full squads

India: Sanju Samson (WK), Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer (C), Ishan Kishan (WK), Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Suryansh Shedge, Harshit Rana, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Ireland: George Dockrell, Stephen Doheny (WK), Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (C) (WK), Gareth Delany, Ben Calitz, Tim Tector, Ross Adair, Matthew Humphreys, Gavin Hoey, Liam McCarthy, Reuben Wilson, Jai Moondra, Matthew Hollard.

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