Following the inaugural edition of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s Under-19 Twenty20 (T20) World Cup in South Africa, it now is time for the senior women’s teams to contest in the ICC T20 World Cup and Ireland in their lead-up to the mega ICC event, suffer a blow with a player ruled out of the competition owing to an injury.
Ireland has been forced to make a change to their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 squad following middle-order batter, Rebecca Stokell being ruled out of the tournament post having sustained a foot ligament injury. Chief selector confirmed, batting all-rounder, Rachel Delaney as her replacement.
Quoting, national selector, Carrie Archer, “We are all devastated for Rebecca and wish her a speedy recovery. Rachel Delaney has been called up – an experienced all-rounder who has been part of recent senior squads. We wish Rachel well as she flies out to join the Irish camp.”
The squad depart for Dublin on the 27th of January and underwent a preparation camp in Cape Town from the 28th of January to the 2nd of February. In their lead-up to the opener against England on the 13th of February, the team is scheduled to play a couple of warm-up matches against Bangladesh.
Ireland claimed victory against Bangladesh in the warm-up and the squad will now move on to Stellenbosch to play their two official warm-up games against Sri Lanka and Australia before their tournament opener against England.
Ireland qualified for the mega ICC event following their win in the semi-final game against Zimbabwe during the ICC qualifier last year. In making it to the finals of the tournament, Ireland alongside Bangladesh confirmed their berths for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Placed in group B, Ireland will play England in their tournament opener on the 13th of February and will then play Pakistan and West Indies on the 15th and 17th of February respectively before playing their last league stage game against India on the 20th of the month.
Ireland’s (updated) squad for T20 World Cup:
Laura Delany (C), Georgina Dempsey, Amy Hunter, Shauna Kavanagh, Arlene Kelly, Gaby Lewis, Louise Little, Sophie MacMahon, Jane Maguire, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, Orla Prendergast, Eimear Richardson, Mary Waldron, Rachel Delaney
(Quote sourced from ICC media release)
