New York, June 5 (IANS): Captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli form the opening combination for India as the 2007 champions won the toss and elected to bowl first against Ireland in their first Group A match of the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium here on Wednesday.

India have won all of their previous seven T20I games against Ireland, and have chosen to pick four fast-bowling options, including vice-captain Hardik Pandya. India have also picked two spinners in left-armers Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, which means there’s no room for wrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.

"Our preparation has been all right, it has been quite challenging but we are professionals and you've got to get on with what's in front of you. We played on a similar pitch in our warm-up game against Bangladesh so I do think we know what to expect from the conditions. At the end of the day, you've got to use your experience and adapt to the day."

"It is going to be slightly different to conditions that we are used to but that is how cricket goes, you have got to be ready for it. I think because we don't fully know what to expect, it will be helpful for us to have a target when we are batting," said Rohit.

Just like in their 60-run win over Bangladesh in the practice game at New York on June 1, wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is slotted at three, followed by Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, and Pandya at four, five and six respectively.

Wednesday’s match also marks the international cricket comeback of Pant after an absence of 17 months and 12 days due to various injuries suffered in a life-threatening car accident in December 2022.

Ireland captain Paul Stirling said they are fielding three seamers and two spinners, with the all-rounders to back them up. "We would've bowled too, there's a bit of cloud cover but now we've just got to get our pads on and get a score on the board. We feel like our prep has been pretty good. We're just looking forward to this game."

"We've got plenty of match-winners in our side and what an occasion this is for them to step up. We kept an eye on the games that have been played here so far, the scores have been quite indifferent, so we've just got to see what's in front of us and adapt accordingly," he added.

Playing XIs:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj

Ireland: Paul Stirling (c), Andrew Balbirnie, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Joshua Little and Ben White