T20 World Cup 2022: England vs Ireland match preview, playing XI, Head to Head, Where to Watch on TV, & Live Streaming Details for T20 WC

England and Ireland are set to face each other in the T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 Group 1 fixture at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday (October 26). As expected, England started their World Cup campaign with a win though a hard-fought one against Afghanistan in their opening clash. On the other hand, Ireland suffered a huge nine-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka after impressive displays in the first Round.

England are being deemed as one of the favourites to win the ongoing tournament after dominating performances against Pakistan and Australia prior to the World Cup. They started well against Afghanistan by restricting them to just 112 runs while bowling first. The in-form pacer Sam Curran took five and Ben Stokes and Mark Wood grabbed two wickets each for England in the Afghanistan game.

But Afghanistan bowlers gave a strong challenge and made England batters sweat it out for a win. England won the match by five wickets but took 18.1 overs to reach the target. Liam Livingstone scored an unbeaten 29 run-knock off 21 balls but the English top-order largely struggled to get going against the Afghan pace attack. With two points in hand, England are currently placed in the number three position in the Group 1 table.

Ireland raised expectations for fans after their well-deserved wins against the West Indies and Scotland in the First Round fixtures but struggled against Sri Lanka in their first Super 12 game. Paul Stirling smashed 34 runs off 25 balls and Harry Tector scored 45 runs off 42 balls but Ireland managed to score only 128/8 while batting first.

Sri Lankan batters accelerated to the target and won by nine wickets and 30 balls remaining at the end with Gareth Delany taking the only wicket for Ireland.

England are likely to bag a big win against Ireland after an average performance against Afghanistan. They are already lacking a healthy net run rate and face strong opponents in the form of Australia, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka in their last three games. But Ireland will take some positives from their last and only T20I clash against England in 2010, where they restricted their opponents to just 120 runs before the rain took a win from their hands.

Pitch Conditions:

The pitch at Melbourne Cricket Ground has a balanced surface that could help both batters and bowlers in white-ball cricket. In the last match here, the surface was hard and there was a little amount of grass, which clearly helped the pacers with the new ball. So the fans can witness another riveting clash between bat and ball on Wednesday.

Playing Combinations for ENG vs IRE:

England:

England made a surprise change in their starting XI for the Afghanistan clash. Harry Brook was drafted in the place of the specialist fourth-pace option. But the management is likely to stick with the same starting XI with Ben Stokes proving excellent with the ball lately.

Predicted Playing XI: Jos Buttler (c & wk), Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid.

Ireland:

Ireland management made no changes to their starting XI and also went with a similar playing order they used in the First Round, against Sri Lanka in the last match. There are no signs of immediate worries so Andy Balbirnie and co. are likely to place the same XI against the mighty England.

Predicted Playing XI: Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie (c), Lorcan Tucker (wk), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Simi Singh, Barry McCarthy, Josh Little.

ENG vs IRE Head-to-Head:

Played- 01 | ENG- 00 | IRE-00 | NR- 01

ENG vs IRE Broadcast Details:

Match Timings: 09:30 AM IST

TV: Star Sports

Streaming: Disney+ Hotstar

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