After ODI loss, Ireland team led by Lewis' look to make a mark in shortest format

The new captain will look to youngster Hunter and all-rounder Prendergast and Hunter to turn things
Ireland captain Gaby Lewis
Ireland captain Gaby Lewis Photo | Cricket Ireland
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CHENNAI: When Ireland women landed in Bangladesh for three ODIs and as many T20Is last month, they knew it was going to be a massive challenge. For starters, the conditions are vastly different, and that is not just it. After finishing the tour of Bangladesh, a litmus test against India awaits in India early next year.

Safe to say, the start has not been easy. Ireland, led by their newly anointed full-time skipper Gaby Lewis, lost all three ODIs to Bangladesh, conceding the series to the hosts. Perhaps, the only positive for them was the way captain Lewis and rising star Amy Hunter batted in the second and third games.

While both scored a fifty each, the team will expect a lot more from them come the T20Is, which begin on Thursday. For Lewis, who took over as full-time captain from Laura Delany recently, this additional responsibility is not new. She has led the country in the past, so Lewis is not stressing too much. Largely, it has been about handling the media a little more than she used to. "Obviously, trying to keep things as normal as possible," she told this daily in a conversation felicitated by FanCode.

Admitting it is an "honour" to be named captain of the country, Lewis is happy to follow the footsteps of her father Alan Lewis, who led Ireland on 35 occasions. "They were very proud and delighted. Just being good support, which is nice. The family has always been there to give advice and things like that," Lewis said with a beaming smile.

As captain, working alongside head coach Ed Joyce, Lewis wants to focus on taking it as small goals while building towards the next T20 World Cup qualification, especially after missing the 2024 edition in the United Arab Emirates. She wants to take confidence from the wins against Sri Lanka and England — they levelled T20I series against both teams while winning ODI one against the former — and build on it. "Our biggest one obviously is about adapting to the conditions, but we could take a lot of confidence from the summer and, switching it around from that loss in the qualifiers and finishing the summer in a high," Lewis added.

The biggest confidence for Lewis and Ireland has been the rise of all-rounder Orla Prendergast and Hunter, who broke the longstanding record of Mithali Raj to become the youngest ODI centurion in 2021 as a 16-year-old. Hunter, in the four years since, has grown leaps and bounds as a batter, especially in the shortest format. From batting at 94.27 strike rate in 2022, Hunter has steadily moved up to 125.73 SR this year.

Ask her what has changed, the teenager attributes it to the technical changes she had made. "I think my game kind of developed a lot since then. The main focus for me has probably been pretty much strike rate and technical focus. I worked pretty closely with the head coach, Ed Joyce, having certain shots that I can rely on in any conditions. I've probably done work on how I approach my batting and take the game on a little bit more than I previously had done."

Watching the growth of Hunter from close quarters, Lewis could not be more happy. "When she first came in, she was a little baby and now she's an adult," laughs Lewis, who, too, made her Ireland debut at the age of 13. "It's great to see her not only mature off the pitch but on the pitch, going about her innings in a more mature manner. We're quite similar in how we took on the game at a young age. It's great to see her flourish in that way and smash it."

Lewis also explained the work that goes behind the scenes to ensure players who debut at a young age are not overwhelmed at the national set-up: "I think that's definitely one that's come up this year, especially with the U19s and a good few of our players being in two programmes. Just looking at the schedule and knowing that they can't do both and a lot of planning and work goes behind the scenes with the support staff. They look at every aspect to make sure that they're not over-trained or any of that. But yeah, I think it's about welfare and just making sure they're a person before a player at the end of the day. So making sure that they're okay on tour and things like that."

For now, the focus shifts to the shortest format as Lewis would be hoping that she, Hunter and the entire Ireland team could put the loss in the ODIs behind. They have three T20Is in testing conditions, but this is where stars are made. A series win here will give a lot of confidence to the captain and the country.

Ireland women tour of Bangladesh is live on FanCode.

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