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Ireland’s campaign at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has been dealt a potential setback with captain Paul Stirling sent for scans after aggravating a knee injury during their 67-run defeat to Australia in Colombo on Wednesday.
Stirling injured his right knee while completing a catch early in the match and further worsened the issue when he attempted to bat during Ireland’s chase. Despite discomfort, the skipper walked out to open the innings but was eventually forced to retire hurt, as Ireland slipped to their second consecutive loss of the tournament. The extent of the injury remains unclear, with the team awaiting scan results to determine its severity.
Ireland batting coach Gary Wilson admitted the early signs were not encouraging. Wilson also explained the reasoning behind Stirling’s decision to bat despite not being fully fit, highlighting the captain’s commitment to the side.
“It doesn’t look great. He went for a scan this evening, so we’ll have to wait for confirmation. But yeah, I would say it doesn’t look ideal. I think credit to him that he knew going out there that he was probably not quite right and he still tried to go out there and get the job done for the team. As I said, unfortunately it wasn’t to be tonight,” Wilson said after the match as quoted by ICC.
Back-to-back defeats, but the game is still not over for the Irish
Ireland now find themselves in a challenging position in the group stage and are likely to need victories in their remaining fixtures against Oman and Zimbabwe to progress to the Super Eights.
Despite the pressure, Wilson insisted the team hasn’t lost belief and pointed to positives from their opening matches. Reflecting on the defeat to Sri Lanka, he felt the team had shown competitive cricket for large portions of the game. Wilson reiterated his confidence in the squad’s potential going forward.
“That was why the other day (against Sri Lanka) was so disappointing because actually for 65-70 percent of that game I thought we were the better side. It was just the last five overs of their innings and the last five overs of our innings, and we just couldn’t quite put the full game together,” he said.
“But there’s a lot of talent in that dressing room and a huge amount of belief from us as coaches to them and we have played the two best teams in our group so far. So we’ve also got two games to come there. They’re hugely important for us,” he added.
The Irishmen will next face Oman in Colombo on Saturday, with a hope that Stirling recuperates in time ahead of the encounter.
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