The long road for Ireland
Like any European tourist hub, Dublin is a busy city. Walk about the streets here and you will get a feel of the multicultures of this world — Americans, Brazilians, Australians, even mainland Europeans throng here to take in a rich dose of history along with Irish whiskey and ale.
Strangely enough, despite the Indian team’s arrival at Malahide on the outskirts of Dublin on Tuesday, Indian faces were conspicuous by their absence on Dublin’s streets. All of that changed on match-day, when the first T20I took place on Wednesday. And then you could only see Indians, replete with their bright blue jerseys and Punjabi songs, some even sporting Chennai Super Kings’ canary yellow.
Trains full of Indian fans made a beeline for The Village, that quaint ground in Malahide playing host to the Men in Blue for only the second time in Irish cricket history. The last time an Indian team visited Ireland was in 2007, when they played a solitary ODI in Belfast. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik were part of that team, and they are among this current contingent as well.
The contrast, though, couldn’t be more stark. Dhoni will one day retire as one of the alltime greats, and while Karthik hasn’t played too much international cricket for the last few years, he already has 24 Tests, 79 ODIs and 20 T20Is to his name. It will be a miracle if any of the current Irish cricketers boasts of a similar record at the end of their international careers.
“T20 is a great format. We have asked the players to enjoy these two games as they are playing against perhaps the best T20 side in world cricket,” said Ireland skipper Gary Wilson ahead of the series. There is only so much enjoyment to be garnered though, when your bowlers are taken for 208 runs in 20 overs, egged on by a partisan 9,000-crowd that isn’t cheering for its adopted nation. Then again, this is Team India we are talking about.
Ireland scored 132-9 in response, and it can be deemed a face-saver, even if India were hardly troubled. The 76-run loss was hardly surprising, but the gulf in quality between the two sides could also hardly be ignored. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan piled on 160 for the first wicket, and they barely broke a sweat. Wrist-spin duo Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal shared seven wickets. At the time of writing, both teams were preparing for the second T20I on Friday at the same ground. A different result is not expected.
“They struggled against spin because they didn’t use too much footwork. We also bowled slow and used our variations of pace. They aren’t used to playing such quality of spin bowling, but with time, Irish batsmen will learn,” said Yadav, after picking 4-21 on his maiden outing in the United Kingdom. For Ireland, it isn’t simply a matter of turning up on the day, and playing against a stronger side for a capacity crowd’s pleasure. World cricket isn’t served at all, in that sense. Instead, it is in the chance to once again go head-to-head with a top T20 side, and learn what they are doing wrong. It is the first step of a long ladder, and the top step is qualification for the 2020 World T20 in Australia. At the moment, Ireland are ranked 17th in the ICC T20I rankings and they need to move at least one run up to have any chance of qualifying.
“Look, we cannot change where we are. It is in the past but we can change how our future shapes up,” said Wilson. “We couldn’t comprehend their spin and it showed that India are a high-quality side. The only way we can improve is by playing regularly against the big teams, and the Future Tours Programme takes care of that. We are playing 65 T20s in the next four years and another 13-14 Tests, so that is a lot of international cricket.”
Will it be another 11 years before India come to play here though? That is a question nobody is willing to entertain, for international cricket never moves in uniform mode.
And then this mini- series is, after all, a warm-up for the actual tour, in which India take on England in T20Is, ODIs and Tests starting July 3. For Virat Kohli and Co, this was about getting into their stride with thumping wins and rotational policy in selection, otherwise not seen often when it comes to the Men in Blue.
Ireland, despite their high hopes and ambitious dreams, was a mere stopover for cricket’s biggest superstars.
Will it be another 11 years before India come to play here though? That is a question nobody is willing to entertain, for international cricket never moves in uniform mode