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England and Ireland will square off against each other in the 20th Match of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Melbourne on Wednesday, October 26.
England wobbled in their opening match against Afghanistan, where they were 65 for 3 in the 11th over chasing a paltry 113 before winning by five wickets. Meanwhile, Ireland – who reached the Super 12 stage for just the second time in their history of T20 World Cups by eliminating West Indies with a thumping nine-wicket victory, were outplayed by Sri Lanka in their first Super 12 fixture at Bellerive Oval, Hobart.
Pitch and Weather report
The pitch out in Melbourne favours the batters as well as the bowlers. The pacers get a good amount of swing in the initial few overs, so the batters need to spend some time in the middle before playing big shots.
There could be rain interruptions during the game but nothing alarming as of yet that suggests a washout.
Playing XI
England – Jos Buttler (c & wk), Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
Ireland – Paul Stirling, Andrew Balbirnie (c), Lorcan Tucker (wk), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Fionn Hand, Barry McCarthy, Joshua Little
Current form
- England: WWWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
- Ireland: LWWLW
Ireland coach Heinrich Malan on his side’s preparation to face Mark Wood: “I think we all know it’s not only him in this tournament that bowls at a rapid pace. There’s quite a few guys that can bowl nice and quickly, and we haven’t necessarily faced that or we don’t necessarily prepare for that on a day-to-day basis, but that’s the challenge that’s in front of us, and again, as an international side we need to adapt. We need to be ahead of the game in terms of what’s coming towards us, and hopefully we can through our preparation and planning make sure we go out there and execute.”
