The conditions at the Nassau County International Stadium in New York on Wednesday were ideal for quicks. The likes of Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya ensured they exploited them and India expectedly gave Ireland a harrowing time as they began their T20 World Cup campaign with an eight-wicket win.

Spongy bounce, being two-paced and a bit of stickiness are characteristics of this New York pitch in the first place. Gloomy overhead skies at the start added to those and India’s bowlers quickly had the Irishmen reeling at 50/8 in the 12th over.

Courtesy Gareth Delany’s 14-ball 26, Ireland could somehow stretch their total close to 100 as they were all out for 96 with four overs still remaining in their innings.

Thereafter, skipper Rohit Sharma, dropped in the very first over of India’s reply at slip, had a decent batting practice even though his opening partner Virat Kohli perished just for one. Rishabh Pant, coming in at No.3, remained unbeaten on 36 off 26 balls as India comfortably reached the target with 7.4 overs remaining.

Rohit though left the field after his 37-ball 52 for being hit on his right shoulder. It seems he took the decision as a precautionary measure, especially before Sunday’s game against arch-rivals Pakistan, as the area where he got hit was sore.

How Pant fared at No.3 bodes well for India, and it was his reverse-lap that turned out to be the winning stroke.

Hardik Pandya (from behind), in a picture shared on X, celebrates with teammates after one of his three wickets on Wednesday. BCCI

Obviously, India’s bowlers did a fine job, being disciplined for most part of the Ireland innings. The team management did the right thing in choosing an extra pacer in place of chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav. But what about Ireland’s batting?

The Paul Stirlings and Andy Balbirnies pride their ability to upstage higher-ranked sides in World Cups. But such atrocious and frighteningly poor was their batsmanship that it appeared as if India’s bowlers were out in the middle for a good nets session to sharpen their skills in overcast conditions.

To be fair to these Irishmen — who felt they had won the toss after match referee David Boon pointed at skipper Stirling first, only to confirm then that it fell in favour of India captain Rohit Sharma — they don’t get to play too many matches against the top-ranked teams. But when you have gained Test status almost seven years back, you’re expected to show at least a little bit of application in challenging conditions.

Not one bit of it was witnessed from any of the Ireland batters. Left-arm pacer Arshdeep and his new-ball partner Mohammed Siraj got the ball to swing, making it uncomfortable for the Irish openers. But instead of trying to tide over that tough phase, Stirling first paid a nothing shot to gift Arshdeep his first wicket.

In the last ball of that third over, Arshdeep picked up his second when Balbirnie, the other opener, presented a novice-like approach to be cleaned up. Pandya then had his share of fun.

A well-directed off-cutter that knocked Lorcan Tucker over yielded Pandya the first of his three wickets. The next two were courtesy extremely poor shots from Curtis Campher and Mark Adair.

Pandya and the rest of the Indian team wouldn’t mind that at all though. And in between, Bumrah, who came in as first change in the final over of the Powerplay, had picked up Harry Tector with a short stuff while Siraj too struck forcing a meaningless stroke from George Dockrell.

There was no way Ireland could recover from thereon. For India, their bowlers in particular couldn’t have asked for a better warm-up ahead of the Pakistan clash.