T20 World Cup: Ireland’s Mark Adair feels warm-up games will aid preparation

Mark Adair feels Ireland’s upcoming games against Italy and the United Arab Emirates in Dubai will “give us the best opportunity to get everyone ready” for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Ireland begin their campaign against joint hosts Sri Lanka in Colombo on Sunday, 8 February, but before that they have three T20 internationals against Italy on 23, 25 and 26 January, and a two-game series against the UAE on 29 and 31 January.

Those five matches will help fine-tune preparations and “find what our best 11 is or best 12” according to the 29-year-old pace bowler who returned from a knee injury for Ireland’s 2-1 T20 series defeat in Bangladesh in December, before finishing the year with the Gulf Giants in the ILT20.

Adair says “it’s been nice to blow the cobwebs off” but attention now turns to the T20 World Cup where Ireland will face Australia, Oman and Zimbabwe after their opener against Sri Lanka.

The top two teams in each of the four groups will advance to the Super 8 phase, and while that will be no straightforward task, it remains a goal for the Ireland squad.

“I don’t think there are too many groups you would go, ‘I wouldn’t mind being in that one’,” Adair told BBC Sport NI from Dubai.

“Being in a group with one of the big names in world cricket with Australia, and then the hosts Sri Lanka which I’m sure the first game for us against them in Colombo will be a great spectacle.

“We’ve a long history with Zimbabwe, played against them a lot. I think I’ve played 90-odd T20s and I would say about 20 of them have been against Zimbabwe, so we know what sort of team they are and their dangers, but there are no easy games and every one is a cup final.

“We want to qualify from this group, and to do that we have to take some scalps along the way, which would be nice.”