Ireland captain Balbirnie delivers virtual batting class

Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie has used the extra time in hand amid the COIVD-19 pandemic by providing a virtual batting lesson, which included tips on how to play spin in India. Balbirnie took a 45-minute interactive session with 19 members from the men's senior side and emerging squads of an academy along with a few coaches.

"I felt if I could help them by providing an insight into what my thinking was in certain scenarios, that might be of value," Balbirnie was quoted as saying by the BBC. "I haven't done too many 'virtual' sessions, but it was very interesting," he added.

The 29-year-old, who leads the national team in all three formats, touched upon a number of topics including how to navigate through the difficult spin conditions in the subcontinent. "Playing in subcontinent conditions is a big part of any international cricketer's career, so we talked about how to go about setting up innings, particularly in testing conditions like India where spin plays such a huge part." "Our performance analyst Jay Shelat was able to integrate footage from my unbeaten century against Afghanistan last year into the session, which was very useful as the guys could actually see what I was doing while I was explaining to them my approach and reasoning around certain decisions I made." The coronavirus outbreak has brought the sporting world to a standstill. Cricket has also been affected.

Ireland's tour of Zimbabwe and a seven-match series against Bangladesh in May have been postponed because of the pandemic, while the summer matches with New Zealand are in doubt.