Gaby Lewis has been declared fit to lead Ireland at the T20 World Cup but to ensure her full recovery the Ireland captain will miss the Tri-series in Clontarf, which starts next week, against Pakistan and West Indies.
Lewis tweaked a knee playing for Lancashire and has taken no part in the T20 Super Series which reaches its conclusion this weekend. However, she attended the press conference to announce the 15-woman squad and confirmed she will be ready for Ireland’s opening World Cup match against Scotland at Old Trafford on June 12.
The good news is that the other players who missed last Sunday’s SS20 matches, Orla Prendergast, Laura Delany, Rebecca Stokell and Amy Hunter are named in both squads – Prendergast will captain Ireland in the Tri-Series – but Jane Maguire has not made it.
She sustained a knee injury in the opening SS20 match and while a big loss to the Ireland pace attack, Lewis did stress that Alana Dalzell and the returning Georgina Dempsey are ready to step up."
"Jane has been a massive part of our squad over a number of years and will be missed but she is in good hands and will come back stronger, for the West Indies series in July," said Lewis.
Amy Hunter has been conspicuous by her absence this season but coach Lloyd Tennant, who also attended the press conference yesterday, confirmed she was on track for a return.
“Amy’s fine. She suffered a hamstring strain during the qualifiers and we have taken our time to build her up properly. Her workload doesn’t just involve batting, she also keeps wicket but she is doing everything in training and we are now just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s,” he said.
In a group that also includes England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies, it will be a virtually impossible task to finish top two and reach the semi-finals but the target for the group is “to get enough wins to avoid the qualifiers for the next World Cup – and that likely means a third place finish in the group.
Ireland are fortunate that Scotland, the lowest ranked team, are their first opponents and a win will give the squad momentum for the rest of the tournament although England,one of the favourites to lift the Cup on home soil, are next up on June 16.
“There's a lot of excitement around the Scotland game at such an iconic ground. They obviously had one over us at the qualifiers so we are looking to bounce back,” said Lewis.
After almost a year in the job, Tennant was feeling positive that the squad was on an upward curve.
“Really pleased with how the year has gone, we have been competitive in almost all the games and appear to be getting a more confident and stronger group. All the players had to work hard to be selected so they know they deserve their place and the players who haven’t made it are pushing hard to get into it. So were are really happy where the whole squad are.”
"One of the exciting things for me is that we have such a young group, the average age is only 24, so we have growth in the group and we are hoping to move forward.”
Ireland T20I World Cup Squad
Gaby Lewis (c), Orla Prendergast (vc), Ava Canning, Christina Coulter Reilly, Alana Dalzell, Laura Delany, Georgina Dempsey, Amy Hunter, Arlene Kelly, Louise Little, Aimee Maguire, Lara McBride, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, Rebecca Stokell.
