Gareth Delany will likely have a key role to play with bat and ball if Ireland are to progress from the first round  ‘Group of Death’ at next month’s T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India.

The 28-year-old Leinster all-rounder occupies the No7 position for the Boys in Green — a pivotal spot in the shortest form of international cricket — with the expectation that he will smash it from the start of each innings.

“I do like to get a bit of a feel for it for a couple of overs and build into it, depending on the situation, but something I’ve got better at over the past couple of years is to be able to turn it on a bit quicker,” Delany said.

While it doesn’t always come off, and he couldn’t see Ireland home in the first warm-up T20 of their campaign against Italy yesterday (FRI) in Dubai, but when the right-hander does find his groove runs flow quickly, as England discovered in September.

A stunning 29-ball knock at Malahide, that contained four fours and three maximums, took him to 48 not out — his highest score against a Test-playing nation.

“I enjoyed that innings because I was coming back from injury and it was my first T20 for about six months, as well as being my first home game for over a year. It’s always good to score runs in front of family and friends.”

The injury was a fractured cheekbone and eye-socket, the result of a collision with a Leinster team-mate in a match against North County that saw him spend 48 hours in Beaumont hospital under observation.

“I had surgery and it took a few months to heal before I was given the all-clear, but it’s fine now,” he said.

Delany is also a more-than-useful leg-spinner who takes key wickets — he claimed 2-19 against Italy yesterday (FRI) — but rarely bowls a full quota of four overs.

“It usually depends on the match-ups — whether I’m seen as a good option against a particular batter,” he explained.

“We’ve got Matthew Humphreys and Ben White as our main spin options and I see my role primarily as a batter.”

It was left-armer Humphreys who did the damage in Dubai, taking 4-16, as Ireland stumbled past Italy’s total of 118 with three balls and three wickets to spare — Delany being part of a nervy late clatter when the game was seemingly well won.

After two more pipe openers against Italy, and two against the United Arab Emirates, Ireland will fly to Colombo where their campaign proper starts with games against Sri Lanka and Australia — two of the four major teams they’ve never beaten —before easier matches, on paper at least, against Oman and Zimbabwe.

“There are no easy groups,” Delany said, “But looking at it in terms of rankings you’d have to say it’s the hardest five.

“It’ll be a great occasion to play against one of the hosts but we’ll probably have to beat either Sri Lanka or Australia to go through to the next stage.”