Ireland World Cup 2015 profile: Giant killers will hope to go one step further

Coach: Phil Simmons

ICC World Ranking: 11

Squad: William Porterfield (C), Andrew Balbirnie, Peter Chase, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce, Andrew McBrine, John Mooney, Max Sorensen, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien (WK), Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson, Craig Young.

Fixtures: West Indies (16 February), UAE (25 February), South Africa (3 March), Zimbabwe (7 March), India (10 March), Pakistan (15 March).

Overview: Ireland will come into the tournament confident, as the ICC High Performance tour would have given them ample time to get acclimatised to the conditions in Australia and New Zealand.

The Irish are a strong and determined team with a good mix of youth and experience. They are capable of beating any side on their day and have shown it in the past when they beat Pakistan by three wickets in the 2007 edition and England in the 2011 edition, when they chased down a massive total despite being on the verge of defeat.

They have an experienced man in William Porterfield leading them and also the destructive Kevin O'Brien in the middle order to bail them out of sticky situations.

World Cup history: Ireland have been part of two World Cup's in 2007 and 2011 and they managed to capture the attention of the spectators. They are a team brimming with confidence and they showed it by pulling off shock victories both their appearances.

Prediction: Ireland are a team capable of causing an upset and this should make them a dangerous opponent for all the teams in group B. They will be looking to build on last World Cup's performance and go one step further and make it to the knockout stages. However, they will have to play out of their skin to make that possible with the likes of India, Pakistan, South African and West Indies in their group.