Ireland captain William Porterfield says a ranking of 10th won’t stop his lads thinking they can win any game they play in the World Twenty20, especially their opening clash with Australia on September 19 in Colombo.
Porterfield’s side have got the jump in terms of preparation by arriving a week earlier than the Australians who landed in Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
However George Bailey’s men did play a three-match T20 series in similarly hot and humid conditions in Dubai, losing 2-1 to Pakistan after Australia won the dead-rubber third game on Monday night.
“The majority of the lads have been here a week or so,” a relaxed Porterfield told a news conference on Wednesday.
“We’ve had a couple of games so we’ve worked on the game plan in the middle.
“The preparation has gone really well so far.”
Porterfield said new part-time bowling coach Craig McDermott, who quit a full-time role with the Australian side earlier this year, had been a major boost to Irish hopes.
“It (Australia) is a game we’ve targeted,” said Porterfield, whose side face matches against Australia and West Indies in Group B.
“Craig’s fitted in pretty well. Something might be made of the fact that he was with Australia before us.
“But he has (instilled) a lot of confidence within the squad that we can go out and beat anyone.”
Bailey and several teammates will face the world’s media on Thursday and will have two days of training before their opening warm-up game against New Zealand on Saturday.
Australia will also play a warm-up match against defending champions England on September 17.
Record-breaking big hitter Kevin O’Brien says semi-professional Ireland have nothing to fear against Australia.
O’Brien, whose 50-ball century against England last year is a record for one-day World Cup matches, says Ireland have been boning up on Australia’s tactics with McDermott’s help.
The two sides haven’t met in a T20 game.
“But we certainly know with Craig McDermott on board now, he’s going to give us the inside information into the Australian team,” O’Brien said.
“There’s no reason for us to be fearing anyone in this tournament.”
Left-arm spinner George Dockrell said Australia were in a rebuilding phase and Ireland had a huge chance to beat them.
