![\"4](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/00247f58-614.jpg\"\/)
\nIreland head coach Lloyd Tennant<\/p>\n
Head coach Lloyd Tennant and captain Gaby Lewis lead an Irish women’s T20 World Cup squad into the finals in England, looking to make a strong early statement, starting against Scotland at Old Trafford on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Ireland’s build-up included Tri Nations wins against Pakistan and the West Indies, a narrow loss to South Africa and a morale-boosting win over Bangladesh last Tuesday.<\/p>\n
A sterner challenge will come in the second game of tournament in what is a primetime clash against hosts England in Hampshire, before Ireland return to the same venue to face New Zealand on 19 June.<\/p>\n
The campaign then moves to Bristol, where Ireland take on Sri Lanka and West Indies on 23 and 27 June, fixtures that could ultimately decide progression to the knockout stages.<\/p>\n
With the experienced Lewis now leading on the field having been rested for the Tri Nations in Clontarf to make sure her injury problems were fine ahead of the finals, Ireland have growing belief they can be competitive throughout the tournament<\/p>\n
“I think every player that comes in has that hunger,” Lewis told RT\u00c9 Sport.<\/p>\n
“Playing against Scotland, which is a team that we’re very familiar with at such an iconic ground like Old Trafford, there’s great excitement, and Irish fans are travelling over in numbers.<\/p>\n
“They’re a good squad. They have players that are playing cricket over in the Metro, One Bank Cup and into the Vitality Blast now and they have the influential Kirsty Gordon coming back in.”<\/p>\n
\nIreland head coach Lloyd Tennant<\/p>\n
For much of the early history between the Scots and Lewis\u2019s side, Ireland held the upper hand winning the majority of their T20 encounters.<\/p>\n
Scotland though have made significant strides, closing the gap and turning what was once a one-sided contest into a genuinely competitive rivalry.<\/p>\n
Recent meetings underline just how tight this contest has become as the Scots have claimed important wins, including a convincing victory in the 2026 T20 World Cup Qualifier, although both sides made the finals in England.<\/p>\n
Ireland then move to Southampton to play the hosts and the Kiwi\u2019s in back-to-back games.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to highlight singular games,” Lewis added.<\/p>\n
“I think the whole World Cup is going to be really special for us, in fact it’s kind of the closest we’ll get to a home World Cup in the next few years.<\/p>\n
“No doubt we’ll have great fans travelling over, and that England fixture will be special, but I think we’re all just looking forward to that first game in Old Trafford<\/p>\n
“You never know in World Cups, especially in T20 cricket, two or three players can win you the game.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got some great young girls coming through and we’ve got some real match winners and a full squad of players that can really contribute to winning games.”<\/p>\n
And in terms of her own injury concerns, she added: “Yes, I’ll be good, I’ll be ready to go for that first game.”<\/p>\n
Ireland’s T20i World Cup fixtures
13 June 2026: Ireland v Scotland, Old Trafford, 10.30am
16 June 2026: Ireland v England, Hampshire, 6.30pm
19 June 2026: Ireland v New Zealand, Hampshire, 6.30pm
23 June 2026: Ireland v Sri Lanka, Bristol, 2.30pm
27 June 2026: Ireland v West Indies, Bristol, 2.30pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head coach Lloyd Tennant and captain Gaby Lewis lead an Irish women’s T20 World Cup squad into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-493123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}