Challenged the lads to show it wasn't a one-off – Tucker

Ireland skipper Lorcan Tucker said that he challenged his team to pull off an encore of their win in the opening T20I against India, following their historic 2-0 series win over the world champions in Belfast.

In what has arguably been the greatest weekend in Irish cricket history, one that also bore witness to the women's team winning their first T20 World Cup fixture, the men defeated India by 1 run on Sunday to complete a series sweep.

"I challenged the lads the other day to show the world that that wasn't a one-off, that we could do it again, and we were able to do it today," Tucker said during the post-match presentation.

Tucker, who took over Ireland's full-time T20I captaincy before this series, went on to laud the team's professionalism in not getting carried away after the opening win.

"I think we were obviously on a massive high the other night, but I challenged the lads to fall down from those clouds, get back to the real world, and put in a performance. I think we rocked up with that same intent. We were professional and diligent in the work we did."

"Sometimes it feels like we play in the shadows of international cricket, but I think we will be front page news after this… it's absolutely amazing," he added.

Ireland were without six of their first-choice players for the series, including all-rounder Curtis Campher and veteran Paul Stirling. The biggest blow came in the form of injuries to their first-choice pace attack with none of Mark Adair, Josh Little and Barry McCarthy available. Yet, they unearthed new heroes in Jai Moondra and Matthew Hollard, who shared 11 wickets between them across the two games.

Tucker reserved special praise for the players not letting inexperience become a roadblock.

"We have a lot of lads there who have very few caps between them, but they just showed that they do the work in the background, they know their own games well. Even when they come to the big stage, they can show up and perform, and we can beat the world's best."

"Great time to be a professional cricketer in Ireland, and for all those kids that came to watch today, watched on TV, we hope we've given them something to strive for."

Indian captain Shreyas Iyer also praised Ireland for their professionalism, while admitting it was "definitely not a great series" for his team.

"Kudos to them, the way they played… they showed professionalism and had a tremendous idea about how the wicket was going to play. The field work was phenomenal. A comprehensive win to them and congratulations," Iyer said.

While praising the execution of his bowlers and debutant Prince Yadav in particular, Iyer was critical of the batters' inability to gauge the wicket compared to their Irish counterparts.

"We fell a bit short in our batting. We fell a bit short in terms of analysing how the wicket is going to play and also converting singles into twos. They definitely outplayed us in that department," he said.

India now jet off to England for a five-match T20I series beginning July 1, with more questions to answer than they would have anticipated when they arrived on UK shores.