After nearly a year away from international cricket Jasprit Bumrah would have been forgiven for being rusty when he ran in to bowl at Ireland in the first T20 of a three-match series between the sides in Malahide, Dublin.
Instead the Indian quick two wickets in his first over as India secured an unexpectedly narrow win on Friday.
Captaining the side in his first international in 11 months Bumrah chose to bowl first on a green wicket in damp conditions.
Ireland were respectively 2-4, 4-27, 5-31 and 6-59, but with some late-order hitting clawed their way to 7-139.
The visitors were 2-47 after 6.5 overs of the chase when rain forced the players from the field. They never returned and India won by two runs on the DLS method.
The match ticked almost all of India’s boxes as they build up to hosting the Cricket World Cup in October.
Bumrah returned from the longest break in his career following a back injury with a stunning start. The first bowler to captain India in T20s, he conceded a first-ball boundary to Andy Balbirnie then bowled him the next ball and got No. 3 Lorcan Tucker to edge behind.
Fellow fast bowler Prasidh Krishna, in his T20 debut, dismissed Harry Tector in his first over and George Dockrell in his second.
The other India debutant, Rinku Singh, didn’t get to bat.
Curtis Campher (39 off 33 balls) and Barry McCarthy (51 no off 33) revived Ireland with a 57-run stand in seven overs.
McCarthy plundered 14 runs off Prasidh in the 17th over and 21 runs off Arshdeep Singh, playing his first game for India since February 2020, in the last over.
Bumrah, Prasidh and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi took two wickets each. Shivam Dube was also given an over to bowl in his first India appearance since February 2020.
The stunted seven-over chase was eventful.
Yashasvi Jaiswal hit a couple of boundaries in the first over bowled by Mark Adair, and survived a comic run-out chance in the second over.
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s pulled six off McCarthy in the fifth over lifted India above the DLS par score, and Jaiswal hooked Josh Little for a six in the sixth over.
Seamer Craig Young then got the wickets of Jaiswal for 24 off 23 and Tilak Varma in successive balls but the rain prevented him from finishing the over.
The second T20 is on Sunday.
