No need to panic, Ireland have got this - Gary Wilson confident team-mates can bounce back from defeat
- Published
There will have been no big inquisition. And certainly no panic.
It will be more a case of 'keep calm and carry on' for the Ireland cricket squad in Abu Dhabi as they aim to bounce back from Thursday's 16-run defeat by Afghanistan in the first of three one-day internationals.
With vital World Cup qualifying points at stake, the players will be in no doubt whatsoever of exactly how important Sunday's second game against the Afghans is - but the camp will be relaxed.
Captain Andrew Balbirnie and coach Graham Ford place a lot of trust in their players - big long team meetings are not their style and I've no doubt the camp will be positive despite not getting the winning start they wanted. Andrew is good himself at keeping spirits up, but to be honest I don't think the players will need it at the minute because of how well they played.
Yes, they will be disappointed. They hate losing, especially to Afghanistan, but they will be thinking that they showed enough in the opening defeat to give them confidence of reversing that on Sunday.
And they have every right to think that way.
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water
Lorcan Tucker hit 83 runs in Ireland's opening loss to Afghanistan
It is a very quick turnaround between the games so I think Andrew and Graham will just be pointing out to the lads that there are so many positives to take.
Yes, there are areas we can improve on but I don't think it will be a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water or anything like that. Afghanistan are a very, very good side and the way we played their spinners was impressive.
Our young players dealt particularly well with it and that bodes really well, not just for this series, but for the next number of years. It was brilliant.
The likes of Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker were good, with Tucker particularly showing great strength of character by coming out and playing well with the bat after having a difficult morning with the gloves. Curtis Campher also once again showed what he can do in international cricket.
Two hundred and eighty-seven was always going to be a difficult target to chase and unfortunately they just got away from us with our bowling innings in the end.
I suppose the big difference is that they had a bloke (Rahmanullah Gurbaz) that went on and got 127, while our top scorer (Tucker) hit 83. I guess that is something the guys will look to improve on for Sunday.
I think if we were batting first and you had offered us 271 on that wicket, we would have snapped your hand off. There was a lot to be pleased about with the batting, and a few big positives with the ball as well.
Andy McBrine bowled superbly and was backed up well by Simi Singh. Andy is just such a steady performer for us and has been for so many years, probably going under the radar a lot and not getting the credit he deserves.
It's not 'one size fits all' when it comes to preparation
Ireland head coach Ford will trust his players to be fully prepared for Sunday
How the players prepare for such a huge match will depend on the individuals, with Andrew and Graham putting a lot of trust in the players to make their own decisions.
After the game on Thursday it will have been simple things like good nutrition, some people might want to do a pool session while others may just want to have a stretch, watch TV in their room and get some good food on board.
Friday will likely have been a rest day, maybe the guys that didn't play will have trained and on Saturday there will probably be a light session, which may even be optional given how long the tour has been.
It will just be to fine-tune whatever the players want to before Sunday's game but really at this stage of the tour it will mostly be mental preparation. It is more about talking cricket whenever you get a chance around the hotel, maybe over a coffee or whatever.
The players have been out there for almost four weeks now and there is no point in flogging them in between matches that are so close together. It is not relaxed as in laid back and nobody cares, but relaxed in the sense of 'get your head in the right frame of mind for a massive game'.
Everyone knows it is a massive game so they will just be doing what they need to do to get ready. For some it might be to be completely chilled out for a couple of days, for others they may want to go down to the ground on Saturday morning and hit 100 balls.
In cricket when players are away for such a long period of time, it is not a 'one size fits all' scenario and our management are very aware of that. At the end of the day, the players will prepare how they feel is best.
Ireland can attack their seamers
I've been chatting to a few of the players - some of them are my best friends in the world - and I know they are really looking forward to Sunday. They want to go out there and put Thursday's result right.
It won't be easy, but I really fancy us to get a good result. We showed that we can beat them with the way we played Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
I think we can get after their seamers. Perhaps in the past they have had a more experienced seam bowling unit but the opportunity is now there to score off their attack, and I think we showed that we can do that in Thursday's game.
I'd still love to be out there with the team and playing, of course I would, but with my wife giving birth last week it was not an option. Once again, I will be watching with sons Oscar and Oliver - and I'm confident we'll get the result we want.