Ireland Men will begin a new T20 International cycle with the toughest of tests this week as India return to these shores for two matches at Stormont in Belfast. The games come at the end of a week in which the Irish government confirmed shared island funding for development at Stormont, totalling €3.5 million. Read more here.
The world champions and current No. 1-ranked side in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings will face Ireland on Friday, 26 June and Sunday, 28 June, with both games starting at 1.30 pm.
It is three years since India last visited Ireland and almost two decades since the sides last met at Stormont, when India won a one-day international by nine wickets in 2007. In the T20 format, the record is even more stark. Ireland and India have met eight times, with India winning on each occasion, most recently at the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in New York.
This series arrives with Ireland in a period of enforced change and renewed opportunity.
Lorcan Tucker has this week been confirmed as the new permanent captain of the Ireland Men’s T20I side, taking over leadership of a squad missing several frontline players through injury. Josh Little, Mark Adair, Paul Stirling, Curtis Campher, Barry McCarthy and Jordan Neill were all unavailable for selection, leaving Ireland without a strong seam-bowling core and a large amount of international experience.
Tucker, 29, has been part of the Irish senior set-up since 2016 and has previously captained the side on a stand-in basis. His appointment gives Ireland a dedicated leader for the format as the team looks towards the next ICC Men’s T20 World Cup cycle.
There is also a chance for new names to emerge. Matthew Hollard and Jai Moondra have received their first call-ups to the senior Ireland Men’s squad, while Reuben Wilson, who made his Test debut last month against New Zealand, is uncapped in T20I cricket.
Moondra’s inclusion will carry a particular storyline against India. Born in Tonk, near Jaipur, he moved to Ireland in 2021 and has developed through the domestic game with Leinster Cricket Club. A left-arm bowling all-rounder, he offers a point of difference in a squad that has been reshaped by injury.
National Men’s Selector Andrew White described the situation as one in which “one player’s misfortune is another player’s opportunity”, and that will be the spirit Ireland need to bring into the two matches.
India arrive with a squad full of T20 pedigree and with Shreyas Iyer installed as their new captain. The IPL, which ran from late March to the end of May, means the touring players have had a rich diet of high-pressure short-form cricket since their World Cup triumph.
The most eye-catching name in the touring party is 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the batting prodigy whose possible international debut has generated huge attention. Safeguarding protocols around his involvement have also drawn coverage, with reports that he will use separate changing facilities while still being able to join team activity during play and meetings.
India’s squad includes established names such as Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, although Nitish Kumar Reddy has reportedly been ruled out of the Ireland and England tours due to injury.
For Ireland, the scale of the challenge is clear. They sit 12th in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings and have played nine T20 Internationals in 2026, winning five and losing four. India, by contrast, are at the top of the world rankings and are the reigning world champions.
That gap, though, is also the point of the exercise. For a team beginning again under a new captain, and with a number of less familiar players seeking to establish themselves, there are few better measuring sticks.
Stormont has staged many important days for Irish cricket, and the visit of India always brings a different level of attention. With TNT Sports showing the games in Ireland and the UK, and with India’s global following tuned in, this is a showcase as well as a contest.
Ireland will be heavy outsiders, but the value of the week may not be measured only by the scoreline. It will be about how Tucker’s team begins to take shape, how the new players handle the pressure, and whether Ireland can create moments against the world’s best T20 side.
The Men in Green have two chances in Belfast to show that, even in a difficult week for selection, the next cycle can begin with ambition.
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Image Credit: Olympian Ciara Mageean, Olympic Federation of Ireland and Sportsfile.
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