Who will win Ireland vs India - T20?
India play their first ever full international match in Ireland when they face the hosts at Malahide, Dublin, in a T20 international. Scheduled to start on June 27, the live action begins at 16:00 local time.
Ireland vs India - T20 : Where to watch/Live streaming
TV channels: Sky Sports, SONY SIX, SONY TEN 3
Live streaming: SkyGo, NowTV
Toss Prediction
India have elected to field first on each of the last three occasions they have won the toss - a similar pattern that has emerged in the Indian Premier League with teams preferring to chase than set a target.
Read on for team previews, betting tips, latest odds and match prediction for Ireland vs India - T20 international.
Ireland Team News & Playing 11
Team News
Ireland have recalled teenage left-arm paceman Joshua Little and off-spinning all-rounder Andy McBrine for the T20 matches against India in Malahide. Barry McCarthy and Craig Young are the two players to make way from the squad selected for the recent Tri Series in the Netherlands. Gary Wilson will captain the team.
Key Players
Kevin O'Brien is Ireland's most obvious star player - the big-hitting all-rounder's ODI century against England, the fastest ever at a World Cup, is never to be forgotten and he is continuing to write his name in Irish history now. By hitting a century on Ireland's test debut against Pakistan, O'Brien became only the fourth player to achieve such a feat on their country's test debut. His T20 international record is comparatively poor, but his big-hitting potential is undoubted.
In the recent Tri Series in the Netherlands, Simi Singh was one of the stand-out performers - the Punjab-born Irishman taking 3-23 and hitting an unbeaten 57 from 29 balls on his T20i debut. He finished the tournament with a joint-highest wickets tally of six, level with team-mates George Dockrell and Barry McCarthy. Boyd Rankin will hope to make an impact against the Indians, meanwhile - the giant pace bowler usually forms a key part of the Irish bowling line-up but played only game in the Netherlands.
With the bat, Paul Stirling was the top Irish scorer with 176 runs - 81 of which came in a 41-ball knock in Ireland's most recent match - the tie with Scotland at Deventer.
Team Form
Ireland fell short at their Tri Nations Series in the Netherlands - the only T20I cricket they have played in the past year. Hoping to build momentum for the India series, they instead lost two and tied one of their four matches.
Starting with a double-header against the Netherlands in Rotterdam, they fell four runs short of 144 in the first match despite Simi Singh starring on debut with bat and ball. Next up they failed to defend 158/6 - Gary Wilson having hit 45* from 42 balls - before heading to Deventer to play Scotland. There they enjoyed better performances - posting 205/5 thanks to Andrew Balbirnie's 74 from 40 balls in a 46-run defeat in the first match and then, the following day, tying their final match as both teams scored 185 from their 20 overs - Paul Stirling hitting a 41-ball 81 to anchor the chase.
Ireland Predicted Playing 11
Paul Stirling, James Shannon, William Porterfield, Andrew Balbirnie, Simi Singh, Gary Wilson, Kevin O'Brien, Stuart Poynter, George Dockrell, Barry McCarthy, Boyd Rankin
India Team News & Playing 11
Team News
Virat Kohli says he is '100 per cent ready' to face Ireland and England after recovering from a neck injury, which forced him to cancel his proposed stint in county cricket with Surrey. India are expected to use the matches against Ireland to experiment, with some of the leading players in this year's IPL given the opportunity to reclaim their India places. Ambati Rayudu will not be one of those, however - the Chennai Super Kings star failed the yo-yo fitness test and was dropped from the touring squad.
Key Players
Rohit Sharma scored a half-century when India beat Ireland in their only previous encounter and has since gone on to become an integral part of the Indian line-up. Opening the batting, he hit two half-centuries in the Nidahas Trophy and scored 173 at an average of 34.60 across the five matches.
Sharma captained the team for those games with Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni rested, but both of those are expected to return against Ireland. Kohli is the only Indian batsman inside the world's top ten in Twenty20 internationals. He scored 530 runs in the IPL, meanwhile, while KL Rahul will hope to continue the form that saw him hit six half-centuries on his way to 659 runs and an average of 54.92 for Kings XI Punjab.
With the ball, Yuzvendra Chahal is ranked third in the world and Jasprit Bumrah sits tenth. Bumrah took 17 IPL wickets in 14 matches too, level with Indian team-mate Kuldeep Yadav and one behind Hardik Pandya - all are expected to feature against Ireland.
Team Form
Success in the Nidahas Trophy was India's latest T20 international victory, as they recovered from defeat in the first match to win four in a row and triumph overall. It followed series wins a against South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka again before that.
In Sri Lanka for the Nidahas Trophy, Shikhar Dhawan hit half-centuries in the first two games, including 90 from 49 balls in the opener, but India lost the first to Sri Lanka by five wickets defending 174/5 before a six-wicket win in pursuit of 140 against Bangladesh.
Shardul Thakur picked up four wickets as India beat Sri Lanka second time around - chasing 153 to win with nine balls to spare - before a 17-run defeat of Bangladesh courtesy of Rohit Sharma's 61-ball 89. Sharma hit another half-century in the final, after Yuzvendra Chahal's 3-18 had helped restrict Bangladesh to 166/8. India's successful chase was the highest in the final of a T20I competition.
India Predicted Playing 11
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah
Jun 27, 2018
20:30 IST / 15:00 GMT
The Village - Dublin, Ireland
Ire vs Ind 
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