William Porterfield's
Ireland
, the most settled and successful of the Associates teams, are pooled with Bangladesh, Netherlands and Oman in Group A of the qualifying round for the 2016 ICC
World Twenty20
. Two spots are up for grabs in the second round, with the winner of the two qualifying pools progressing.
Ahead of Ireland's opening match against Oman in Dharamsala on March 9, the captain spoke to TOI Sports on the team's progress so far, their chances in the World T20, and how much playing
Test cricket
means to him.
Excerpts. After MS Dhoni, you are the tournament's most experienced captain. You've got a settled team, a pretty good T2OI record and the biggest fan support for all Associates. Could this be the edition where Ireland's fortunes change?We feel good. We've prepared for this event hard, for about six months now, so yes we feel good about our chances. The makeup of the squad's good, the more experienced lads are taking a lot of responsibility in terms of looking after the younger lads, which is encouraging. Its good to see the senior bowlers and batters taking on additional responsibility. That's been great for the younger lads. The seniors are getting on the wrong side of 30 and the younger ones are in their early to mid-20s, which gives us a good balance. I think we're in a good place with that.
Ireland should know Indian conditions well, with the 2011 World Cup and several camps here, such as the DY Patil Stadium four years ago. Yes, and one of the main things we've had the two warm-up games in Dharamsala. That's been great, to get here and get used to the conditions for our matches. One under lights and one during the day. Just as we will be in the main tournament. Its an advantage to get to India and train early, rather than turn up before a match. Our preparation has been good and this is an advantage.
In the group stages of the World T20 Qualifiers, Ireland lost to Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea. Were those a wake-up call? More so because Ireland were unbeaten in 21 matches before the PNG match? No. I think it shows how fast the other teams are catching up to the top teams. I think a lot of teams put a lot of resources into T20, as its an exciting format and one that can really boost cricket within all these countries. The Qualifiers showed how teams are going and you're going to see a lot of competitive cricket from everyone over the next week. Everyone's got a great chance of going through to the second round. You've got to be on top of your game and be ready to grab your chances. I'm really looking forward to it.
In your pool, beating Bangladesh and Netherlands will be massive for qualification.First and foremost, there's Oman. They've been playing some great cricket coming into this tournament, both in the Qualifiers and the Asia Cup and games outside of that. We cannot look past that game. The equation is we have to win three out of three to go into the main round, and that starts tomorrow with Oman. We can't take anything lightly against them. They've had a great start to their tournament preparations and we've got to get those two points over Oman before we start worrying about the other teams.
Should you make the second round, which teams could you realistically pull down?If it comes to that stage, we'll be confident of performing against anyone. It'll take good cricket to get there. The advantage that the teams qualifying have is three competitive games going into the second phase, where the teams already there will have played a couple of warm-up matches. Momentum is a big thing in T20 cricket, so if you've won three from three then confidence is high and if you're playing good cricket as well, you just need a couple of people to come off on the day. That'll win you games of cricket.
Having Boyd Rankin back should be a big asset? I think he's massive. On any wicket and in any conditions, someone like that can cause trouble and I think he's done that for us. He's back after a while but the way he's slotted in, its like he hasn't been away. Its great to have him back in and he's really enjoying it and a lot of the bowlers are enjoying having him back. That helps youngsters learn from him, though I don't think too many batters are enjoying having him back in the nets.
Its unfortunate the World T20 is the only realistic chance for most Associates to reach a world event in the remainder of this decade, isn't it?It is frustrating when you sit back and look at it, but out on the pitch we just have to go and keep putting in performances. We did that to a large extent during the 2015 World Cup but we have to do that again now. If we don't keep banging on the door then it becomes easier for the ICC to turn their back on us. If we qualify through the group here and go and beat teams in the second phase, then they cannot keep turning their backs. Same with the other group, where you've got Scotland and Hong Kong and Afghanistan who all have very realistic chances of going through. Its going to be an interesting couple of weeks. We're looking forward to getting stuck in and qualifying from our group.
A lack of opportunities to play against Full Member teams has been a theme you've has spoken of before, most stirringly during last year's World Cup. Since then, the number of assured spots for Associates at World Cups has gone from four to none. Are you hopeful of Ireland getting more ODIs? Its something we've obviously been crying out for. Between 2011 and 2015 we competed in nine ODIs against top teams, which over four years is not a lot. Its something the board has been working tirelessly on and we stand to get a few more fixtures which is great for ourselves. If we keep doing that then we can only improve. We want to be there. We want to play Test cricket, ODIs and T2OIs. We've got the ambition as a country and as I said before, we've got to keep putting up performances on the pitch.
On the not too distant horizon is the Test Challenge in 2018, which will allow the winner of the Intercontinental Cup to gain Test status. A realistic target, one would imagine? Absolutely, very much so. Before the start of this tournament we played our third Intercontinental Cup match and then everything turned to T20. But it something we're trying to do, spread our resources across all three formats and I think we're building up a pool of players that are giving us the opportunity to do that. We've got some great young bowlers coming through, especially building up to Test cricket. So that stock of bowlers to pick from is good. I think a lot of the right things are being done behind the scenes and to get that squad of players built up is going to be great for us. Obviously you've got to take 20 wickets to win a game and we're doing that. We're not just preparing to play Test cricket, we're preparing to win matches.