Colombo, Feb 12 (IANS) Skipper Paul Stirling’s knee injury “doesn’t look good” according to batting coach Gary Wilson, as Ireland are waiting for scans to confirm the severity of the injury.
Stirling hurt his right knee when completing a catch early in Ireland’s 67-run loss to Australia in the Group B match of the T2o World Cup on Wednesday and aggravated it even further when he attempted to bat, which forced him to retire hurt in the first over of the chase.
“It doesn’t look great. He went for a scan this evening, so we’ll have to wait for confirmation. But yeah, I would say it doesn’t look ideal,” Wilson said after the match.
Wilson was pushed on why Stirling had come out to bat during Ireland’s run chase and the batting coach said the captain wanted to lead from the front.
“I think credit to him that he knew going out there that he was probably not quite right and he still tried to go out there and get the job done for the team. As I said, unfortunately it wasn’t to be tonight,” he said.
Ireland lost their second game at the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on Wednesday. They will now likely require victories in their remaining two group fixtures against Oman and Zimbabwe to reach the next phase and Wilson said the side hadn’t given up hope of picking up two wins and moving through to the Super Eights.
“That was why the other day (against Sri Lanka) was so disappointing because actually for 65-70 percent of that game I thought we were the better side. It was just the last five overs of their innings and the last five overs of our innings, and we just couldn’t quite put the full game together.
“But there’s a lot of talent in that dressing room and a huge amount of belief from us as coaches to them and we have played the two best teams in our group so far. So we’ve also got two games to come there. They’re hugely important for us,” Wilson said.
Ireland will next be in action against Oman in Colombo on Saturday.
–IANS
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