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Team India hands debuts to Suryansh Shedge and Prince Yadav for the must-win 2nd T20I against Ireland in Belfast, while teen sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi sits out. Check out the full playing XIs as captain Shreyas Iyer wins the toss and opts to bowl!
Team India has fielded two debutants, seamer Prince Yadav and all-rounder Suryansh Shedge, against Ireland for the second and decisive T20I, while leaving out Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. As Team India prepares for the must-win game in Belfast, its captain, Shreyas Iyer, won the toss and elected to bowl first. 513 days since India played a newcomer in Harshit Rana in January 2025, two new faces will don the Indian jersey in the shortest format. The wait to see Vaibhav in Indian colours continues. Ireland, on the other hand, is playing the same side that beat India in the series opener.
India - Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson(w), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav
Ireland - Tim Tector, Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker(w/c), Benjamin Calitz, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Liam McCarthy, Matthew Humphreys, Jai Moondra, Matthew Hollard
Speaking at the toss, India’s T20I captain Iyer said, “We’re going to bowl first considering the weather conditions. It can pour any time, so we want to maximise the advantage of it.”
“Yeah, we’ve got two changes. Suryansh Shedge and Prince Yadav come in. Both are making their debut. So, these are the two changes we’ve made,” Iyer said of the team changes for the second T20I.
Praising the rookie all-rounder Shedge, whom he captains and plays alongside at Punjab Kings in the IPL, Iyer said, “He’s a powerful, destructive batter. Yes, he’s a sensational youngster who has been scoring runs in domestic cricket and also in the IPL. He’s got a tremendous amount of experience in youth cricket. So definitely he’s performed in the A tours. So, he’s getting, he’s reaping the benefits.”
Meanwhile, the fans await Sooryavanshi’s debut, who has been picked on the back of a tremendous last year for his IPL team, Rajasthan Royals and India A and Under-19 teams. The attacking left-hander, in only his second IPL season, won the Orange Cap for scoring the most runs (776 runs in the 2026 edition), alongside four others in a record feat.
Earlier in February this year, Vaibhav became an Under-19 ODI World Cup winner, helping India's U19 team to beat England in a pulsating final. The left-hander smashed his career-best ODI score of 175 runs in the final.