India opener key for Irish at World Cup - Stirling

Paul Stirling has hit 16 centuries in all formats since making his Ireland debut in 2008

Ireland captain Paul Stirling says a good display against number one side India in their first men's T20 World Cup game would give them confidence for the rest of the tournament.

It is the toughest of openers for the Irish as they prepare for the Group A encounter in New York on Wednesday (15:30 BST).

Ireland are making their seventh T20 World Cup appearance and they also play Pakistan, Canada and co-hosts USA, with the top two from Group A progressing to the Super 8s stage.

Ireland ran India close in a T20 series in 2022 but lost out 2-0 to the tourists at Malahide, Dublin.

“India are a really difficult challenge - they’ve got a number of top, top bowlers, they’ve just come off the back of the IPL and we know what they bring is the highest quality in cricket standards," said 33-year-old opener Stirling.

“No matter what happens, if we put in a strong performance we’ll go in with confidence into the next three games of the group."

Stirling's team face T20 World Cup debutants in their following two games - Canada on 7 June in New York before moving to Florida to take on USA a week later.

"I certainly never thought I would play a cricket game in New York in my life - it’s something I’m looking forward to and I know the rest of the squad are as well," he added.

They finish against Pakistan on 16 June in what is expected to be a meeting between the sides battling for second place behind India.

Pakistan beat the Irish 2-1 in a recent T20 series in Clontarf and are four places higher in the rankings.

Canada and USA may be outsiders but the Americans boast home advantage and defeated Bangladesh 2-1 last month to earn a first series win over a Test-playing nation.

They followed that up by beating the Canadians by seven wickets in the tournament opener on Sunday.

Stirling said: “We know how daunting a task it will be against four strong teams, not just two - the India game is probably the trickiest of the four first up so we aim to put in a really good performance, then we’ve got two huge games coming up after that against the USA and Canada.

“If we get to the stage where we’re facing Pakistan in a ‘winner-takes-all’ we’d probably be happy but if we look too far ahead and look at that scenario we’ll fall short.

"The USA beating Bangladesh just cements the idea that we have to be at our best to beat them."

Potent pace duo

Pacemen Josh Little and Mark Adair will spearhead the Irish attack while Stirling, Andrew Balbirnie, Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker provide a strong top order.

Ireland warmed up for the World Cup with wins over Scotland and the Netherlands before a 41-run defeat by Sri Lanka in Florida on Friday.

They progressed from the first round at the 2022 T20 World Cup before stunning England in the Super 12s.

A top-two finish in the group is the target and Stirling is upbeat on Ireland's chances of doing just that.

“We really want to get into that Pakistan game with a chance of getting through from the group.

"I think the bookies would have us in the middle range of the rankings to finish third in the group so I suppose the challenge for us is to try and better that and finish second.

“I think we’re in a really good place. I think if we play to our potential and play to the best of our ability we can definitely get through the group but if we look past that first game against India then we’ll be in a bit of trouble.”