George Dockrell - Ireland - Bowling Allrounder

Starting off as a lanky left-arm spinner, Dockrell hardly plies the trade that got him into the international fray and has instead transformed himself into a powerful lower-middle order basher. A cricketing prodigy, Dockrell was around Ireland’s international setup through various levels of age group cricket. By age 18, he had already bagged a 2-year contract with Somerset, an extraordinary feat considering he was from Ireland, which was then still an Associate nation.

The Ireland U-19 squad that Dockrell was part of marched through the 2009 U-19 World Cup Qualifiers thereby making it through to the tournament. Dockrell played three games in that competition with no substantial returns. Dockrell’s prodigious talents, however, did not go unnoticed and a recently-formed void in Ireland’s spin department meant that he got his maiden international call-up for the 2010 Quadrangular T20 series in Sri Lanka and for the T20 World Cup Qualifiers. Dockrell’s T20I debut, which incidentally was also his senior T20 debut, came in Ireland’s game against Afghanistan in the Quadrangular series and the then 17-year old starred with figures of 2-11 in a game that eventually ended with an Irish victory. What really put Dockrell in the limelight though was a noteworthy 3-wicket haul against the West Indies in the following 2010 T20 World Cup. Despite Ireland suffering a heavy 70-run defeat in a low-scoring encounter, Dockrell had made a statement at the international stage by accounting for Andre Fletcher, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Narsingh Deonarine while conceding just 16 runs in his quota of 4 overs.

Those performances were enough to earn him a spot in Ireland’s 15-man squad for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. In his first World Cup game, Dockrell recorded figures of 2-23 against Bangladesh and just under a fortnight later, he was back in the news for trapping both the great Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni lbw in Ireland’s game against India. Following that, Dockrell was made captain of the Ireland U-19 side for the 2012 U-19 World Cup. While Ireland crashed out after just the group stage with just 1 win in 3 games, Dockrell had a decent tournament - picking up 5 wickets while also being extremely economical.

Come 2015, Dockrell was already an established member of Ireland’s senior team. In Ireland’s first game of the 2015 Cricket World Cup against the West Indies, a game that Ireland won handsomely, Dockrell produced an impressive performance with figures of 3-50. While playing against other top sides in the competition though, Dockrell didn’t quite enjoy the same level of success and he ended the tournament with just 5 wickets with Ireland failing to make it past the group-stage. He was also a part of the following T20 World Cup in 2016 and his only performance of note was a 3-wicket haul against the Netherlands.

In the years that followed, Dockrell remained an integral part of Ireland’s setup. A tight wicket-to-wicket spinner and also a gun fielder, Dockrell began adding another dimension to his cricket - batting. Continually working his way up the order, Dockrell slowly built up a reputation for being a hard-hitting middle order batter. While he missed out on making his Test debut in Ireland’s first ever Test match, he was handed his Test cap a year later in 2019 in a Test against Afghanistan. He scored 39 and 25 while also picking up a couple wickets in the first innings. In Ireland’s famous win over South Africa in 2021, Dockrell scored a crucial 23-ball 45 - further demonstrating his batting prowess. His maiden T20I fifty led Ireland to victory in their game against Afghanistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Written by Anurag Hegde