India's 3 highest run-scorers vs Ireland in T20Is
Ireland will host India for a three-match T20I series starting on Friday, August 18. While the visitors see it as a chance to experiment and give some game time to their fringe players, the Irish will want to cause an upset. They'd want to show the world why they deserve more than just a T20I series every few months against a big team.
India's batting lineup for the series fashions a new, younger look, as expected. Most of the first-choice players who were a part of the 3-2 defeat in the five-T20I series against West Indies recently have been rested.
Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal are at the top of the order. Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson, and Jitesh Sharma are available middle-order options while Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, and Shahbaz Ahmed are the all-rounders. Among them, only Samson has previously played against Ireland in T20Is.
Let's look at Men in Blue's three highest T20I run-scorers against Ireland:
#3 Suresh Raina
The 2018 India tour of Ireland was the last time we saw Suresh Raina doing his thing for India in T20Is. One of the greatest T20 cricketers of his generation and an IPL revolutionary, the left-handed batter left much to desire in his international career.
Raina's weakness against short-ball and fitness issues were threatening to cut short his career and the series in 2018 was seen as a last hope of a revival. He played both matches, got out for 10 (6) in the first but completed his 1500 runs in T20 cricket, and followed it up with a brilliant 45-ball 69 in the second match.
The knock included his typical sweetly-timed inside-out shots and supreme confidence against spin. His fifth turned out to be his last half-century in T20Is. Raina was selected for the home T20Is against England but batted in just one innings of three and didn't play international cricket in the shortest format after that.
His 79 runs in three matches (he didn't get to bat in the 2009 World T20 match against Ireland) are still the third-highest for India against the Irish.
#2 Rohit Sharma
Coincidentally, Rohit Sharma also played in the same games as Raina against Ireland. He scored an unbeaten half-century (52 off 45) in the 2009 World T20 and finished the 113-run chase before Raina could come to bat. This was just his second T20I fifty.
In the first match of the 2018 series, He scored a 61-ball 97 at a strike rate of 159.02 followed by a two-ball duck in the second.
Rohit's 149 runs against Ireland, at an average of 74.50 and a strike rate of 137.96 are the second-best for India.
#1 Deepak Hooda
Deepak Hooda's breakout series, a tour of Ireland in 2022, made him India's highest run-scorer against the Irish in just two matches.
It was just his second international series. He opened in the first match with Ishan Kishan and scored a rollicking 47 (29). Shifted to No. 3 in the next game to accommodate Sanju Samson at the top of the order, he hit the eighth T20I century by an Indian - a brilliant 57-ball 104, which included nine fours and six sixes.
The knock, only the first T20I century by India against Ireland, came at a time when Virat Kohli was struggling for form in the shortest format. There was a strong section of fans and observers who believed that Hooda could be Kohli's heir.
However, a dip in form, a constantly changing role, some perplexing selection calls, and a poor IPL 2023 later, he's now out and conveniently replaced by recent performers.