Last 12 months have been great for Ireland: Laura Delany

I firmly believe that this is the first ICC Women's T20 World Cup tournament where we have numerous players who have established themselves in the women’s cricket landscape.

Gaby Lewis played in The Hundred for the second year in a row, she has 113 caps and is still only 21, and after making global headlines with her record-breaking century in 2021, Amy Hunter has added a great deal more consistency and self-belief.

Even though she is still only 17, she is really coming to grips with her game and knows where she wants to take it.

In the last 12 months, Orla Prendergast and Arlene Kelly have been match-winners for us. Both players have the ability to win us games or change the course of a contest. 

We also cannot discount the experience and the skills of Eimear Richardson and Mary Waldron – they may be two of our most senior players, but they both seem to be getting better the longer they play.

I could go on, that is what is so exciting about our squad – every player has made the squad on merit and every player has the skills and talent to compete at this level.

We have a young squad with an average age of 24, but it is a squad that has grown in confidence and character over the last few years. 

Nothing exemplifies this more than when we travelled to Pakistan late last year. After losing the ODI series, we bounced back to claim the T20I series at the end of a tough tour.

Our squad has the ability to change based on the opponent, the conditions or the state of the match, and while in years gone by, we perhaps lacked depth, that is now changing and we have a good pool of players to call upon.

Without doubt, T20Is are the growth engine of the modern game, and we have played a lot of them over the last few years. 

The shorter format of the game can be unpredictable at times, and on a given day, any player can really make a substantial impact on a team’s performance or can change a game’s direction.

As captain, T20I cricket is a real test of mental strength, intuition and judgement. You need to be able respond quickly as every ball is a contest, that’s what is fascinating and challenging about the format.

In tournament conditions, that unpredictability can see results that do not follow the supposed form book.

The last 12 months have been a great period of development and progress for our squad, with wins over South Africa, Zimbabwe and Pakistan to name a few. 

We might be a young squad, but we are confident in our skills and have a strong team ethic, and we are certainly heading to South Africa with the intent to win games. 

We have some tough games against some of the world’s best sides, but if we stick to our processes and game plans, then we have every chance of winning games.

Column written by Ireland skipper Laura Delany for the ICC ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup 2023, supplied by ICC Media Zone.