Ireland's selection confusion reigns despite comfortable victory over Papua New Guinea

The 41 run win may have raised more questions than it answered

Ireland’s initial venture into the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier started tentatively with a two-run first over against Papua New Guinea. Sarah Forbes, thrust into the role of T20 opener, faced four dot balls. Not an ideal beginning in cricket’s fastest format.

Amy Hunter was left out with a hamstring issue, having missed one warmup game and retiring after 19 balls in the other. The omission against PNG was supposedly precautionary but it remains a worry for the rest of the tournament.

After making a reasonable 146/6 the girls in green then turned around and bowled 17 overs of seam on a low, slow Nepali wicket. Aimee Maguire contributed just 3 overs of left-arm orthodox as senior spinner Cara Murray was left to being the designated substitute fielder.

Back in August, Ava Canning collected figures of 4-1-9-1 against Pakistan in Clontarf. Usually a mainstay of the bowling attack, Canning has also been left out with Alana Dalzell coming into the side.

All of this added up to a very unusual looking lineup compared to the one that has excelled in bilateral T20 series for the last three years. Despite dispatching PNG with relative ease, the selections raise a number of questions about Ireland’s recent planning. Lloyd Tennant has been in the Head Coach’s role since May 2025 and still seems to be working out exactly what talents he has available to play with.

The selection of Forbes to open is probably the most worrying. A staple of the ODI side, the Pembroke woman has performed admirably in that role, occupying the crease to good effect. She has racked up consistent 30+ scores against strong teams and overall has done a good job at seeing off the new ball to allow Ireland’s middle order to go to work.

As well as she has done in the 50 over team, she is simply not a T20 player. A strike rate of 58 in both ODIs and T20Is, Forbes is not a consistent boundary hitter, in fact she has still yet to hit a single 6 in her 27 innings of international cricket.

The numbers do not make for pretty reading at domestic level either. In 2024’s Super 20 Trophy she averaged 20 at a strike rate of just 83 compared to an overall SR of 96.93 for the tournament. 2025 was a much more batting friendly year for the competition with the overall strike rate rising to 125.74, Forbes however dipped to to 74.68.

Rebecca Stokell stepped into the opening role on a trial basis against Zimbabwe earlier in the summer and hammered 45 off just 28 balls, the fact that she has not been asked to repeat the job points to a fundamental flaw in Ireland’s squad; a lack of hitters.

If Stokell were to move up, then Ireland are left with a chronic deficit of power at the back end of the innings. Forbes is the only reserve batter in the 15-strong squad, slotting her at 6 instead doesn’t really solve the problem. Leah Paul would be another option to move up to open but again the problem remains.

A solution outside of the squad is Louise Little who certainly has the talent to develop into a regular boundary scorer for Ireland. Having batted almost everywhere from opener to 9 in an international jersey, she has been in and out of squads since as early as 2017 but remains one of the few women in the country with the natural ability to clear the fence.

She stroked eight maximums in eight games in last years Leinster Premier League, behind only Lara Maritz and Madison Landsman, and double anyone else in the competition. Outside of her however it is slim pickings with no batters from the last U19 squad yet to make the step up to senior level. Maritz would be a dream addition but curiously remains seemingly unavailable for international selection.

If Ireland are to take the next step up and actually compete at a World Cup level they must learn that games won’t be won with 140s and 150s. They need to find boundary hitters and develop them. The women’s game is accelerating faster than ever and a blocker up top simply won’t do, if Ireland are to get through this tournament then they’ll need to accelerate too.

This article by Gary Murphy first appeared on his substack here:

https://carnivalcricket.substack.com/p/irelands-selection-confusion-reigns