India Vs. Ireland: Jasprit Bumrah Is Back In Blues; Stats & Records-

Team India’s leading pacer Jasprit Bumrah is finally making his comeback in international cricket after his list of injuries. Bumrah will lead India in 3-match T20I series against Ireland. The series starts tomorrow, August 18, 2023. Second and third T20Is will be played on August 20 & 23 respectively, all of three at The Village, Dublin.

Tomorrow’s first T20I will mark Bumrah’s return to international cricket after a staggering 326 days streak without being on field. In August 2022, India’s leading pacer was ruled out of the Asia Cup due to back injury and went under rehabilitation at the NCA, Bengaluru.

After four weeks of rehab, Bumrah was included in the T20I squad for the home series against Australia & South Africa. After playing 2 T20Is against Australia he again experienced back pain which turned out ruling him out of the T20 World Cup 2022. Due to recurring back injury he had to withdraw his comeback in January 2022 against Sri Lanka. 

In February, 2022, Bumrah went under a surgery on his lower back in New Zealand. Subsequently, the pacer didn’t get his spot in Border-Gavaskar trophy. Further he missed the entire IPL season and the very important WTC Final in June which India lost to Australia.

Finally, on July 21, 2023  BCCI in a statement confirmed that Bumrah was in his final stages of recovery and will be back on the field shortly. Soon in 10 days he was named T20 Captain for India tour of Ireland. Team India and cricket circles are looking forward for his comeback owing to upcoming Asia Cup and cricket world cup 2023.

Stats & Records ahead of India Vs. Ireland-

• -       India has played five T20Is against Ireland and have dominated in each of them winning all the five. The first encounter came in ICC T20 World Cup 2009. Since then Ireland hosted Indian team twice in a two-match T20I series in 2018 & 2022.
• -      Indian cricket team holds the highest team total in India vs Ireland T20Is. In the bilateral series in 2022, Hardik Pandya and company registered 225 losing 7 wickets with Deepak Hooda’s maiden T20I hundred and Sanju Samson’s fifty. In reply, Irish managed to reach 221 runs and lost just by 4 runs.
• -     The Irish has the lowest team total against India, while chasing 214 runs in 2018, Ireland were bowled out for 70 runs in 12.3 overs.
• -   Deepak Hooda has scored most runs in India vs Ireland T20Is. He has smashed 151 runs in just 2 matches with the average of 151 & strike rate of 175.58.
• -   Spin duo Kuldeep Yadav & Yuzvendra Chahal have picked the most wickets. Both have scalped 7 wickets each.
• -     Sanju Samson and Deepak Hooda hold the record for the highest partnership in India vs Ireland T20Is. Samson and Hooda forged a match-winning 176-run stand for the second wicket to guide India to 225/7 in their 20 overs.