“I think our spinners have grown a lot recently,” Tucker said. “I think their performances have improved. They’ve become more experienced, so I think that’s a part of our game. We’ve tried to grow in the last few years, and we’ve been able to do that. I think it’s in as good a place as possible going into this week.”
Ireland had watched Sri Lanka be derailed by the likes of Adil Rashid and Will Jacks too, as they went down 3-0 on turning tracks in the recent series.
“We did notice that the games against England, all the wickets took a bit of spin in general, and both teams used spin very effectively,” Tucker said. “There were periods where it was very hard to score, so I think we’ll be trying to maximise that for our spinners. At the same time, we know the Sri Lanka spinners are very experienced and very skilful, so it’s going to be tough, but I think we’re going to play confidently, play aggressively, and hopefully try and come out on top.”
“It’s really dry everywhere, so we suspect there will be a bit of spin, which will hopefully bring us into the game. So we’re going to try and capitalise on that tomorrow.”
Ireland also have some form going into their tournament opener. In a two-match series agaisnt UAE in Dubai, Tucker hit an important 38 off 25 in the first win, then effected three stumpings in the second, as Ireland stormed to a 2-0 win. They’d also beaten Italy 2-1, also in the UAE. His team, Tucker said, was ready, despite the rain in Colombo.
“We had two good weeks in Dubai before this leading in, so we feel like we’ve had enough cricket. We had five games against Italy and the UAE. We’ve had a nice week in Sri Lanka. We’ve noticed there’s been a fair bit of rain around, but I think we’ve still been able to get a lot of work done.”