Ireland captain Laura Delany has urged her young team-mates to show the world what they can do at the T20 World Cup.
The Irish squad are set to fly to South Africa for the tournament for four warm-up games ahead of their opener against England on 13 February.
With a squad average age of 24, Delany (30) is excited about their World Cup prospects.
“We have quite a young squad, but it has grown in confidence and character over the last few years,” she said.
“Nothing exemplifies this more than our tour to Pakistan late last year when we lost the ODI series, but bounced back to claim the T20I series at the end of a tough tour.
“I thought we had a really good summer. We had series wins against Holland and Scotland and then we had a really good performance against South Africa, winning one of the T20s at the start of June.
“So from a team point of view, everything’s heading in the right direction. From an individual point of view, some of the girls have put in really good performances over the last 12 months and I’m excited for them to go and show the world what they can do at the next level.
“We have a number of players with a great deal of experience and a cohort of younger players who have come into the senior set-up in the last 18 months.”
Ireland, who reached the World Cup by coming through a tough qualifying tournament in Dubai last September, have been drawn in Group B along with England, India, Pakistan, and West Indies.
The side narrowly missed out on qualification for the last World Cup and Delany, who will be playing in her fourth T20 World Cup, said they will be using that as motivation in South Africa.
“It hurt us the last time, not qualifying for the T20 World Cup in Australia,” she said.
“It was hard for us as a squad to watch those games, but the way that we’ve come back has shown what this team is all about, our character, and we’re now relishing the opportunity of going over and playing against some of the best sides in the world.
“The World Cup is where every team wants to be in any sport, so we’re really looking forward to it. There should be a strong Irish support there all right, as I know there are some families going out to South Africa to support us, which is brilliant.”
Delany is more than six years into her captaincy – this will be her second World Cup as skipper – but said the role still makes her very proud.
“To be able to impact and contribute to Irish cricket is something that I think every player in the team is very privileged to be in the spot to do,” she explained.
“There’ are a lot of players who missed out that would love to be heading off to South Africa with us – from a captaining point of view, it’s a challenge, but I love captaining this group.
“There’s so much potential, they’re super enthusiastic and keep me on my toes – and they keep pushing our senior players as well, which is brilliant. It’s a really competitive side at the moment.”
