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Paul Stirling joins Birmingham Bears ahead of Vitality Blast 2022

The experienced Irish opener Paul Stirling has joined Warwickshire cricket club and is ready to represent the Birmingham Bears as its only overseas player apart from Carlos Brathwaite in the upcoming Vitality Blast 2022. As per the latest reports, the Belfast-born dynamic opener will be available for Bears for their first 12 games, that include the 7 home matches at the iconic Edgbaston ground. 


Stirling has been one of the mainstays of the Irish batting line up for a long time now. After making his T20I debut in 2009, the dashing opener has struck 2776 runs from 101 innings at a pretty healthy strike rate of 134.69. Overall, Stirling has scored 6952 T20 runs with 2 hundreds and 47 fifties at a very impressive strike rate of 141.67 in a career spanning over 12 years.

 

Mr Paul Farbrace, the club’s director of cricket, stated to be delighted to have Stirling in the side as the latter has a plethora of experience in T20 cricket, having played in world cups and T20 leagues across the globe. He further added that the new opening pair of Stirling and Alex Davies would make the line up even more exciting. 


“Paul could be a transformational signing for us in this year’s Blast. He is one of the most powerful openers in the t20 game and has lots of experience on the biggest stage, having played in world cups and global franchise tournaments," Farbrace said. 


“With a new look opening pair of Paul and Alex Davies in this year’s Blast, it’s an incredibly exciting line up that Carlos Brathwaite is going to be captaining when we take to the field at Edgbaston for our opening game against the Steelbacks on Thursday 26 May,” he further added. 


On the other hand, Stirling also expressed his happiness as well as excitement on joining the Birmingham-based cricket club. The veteran opener termed the local fan base as one of the bests in the world in terms of creating a great cricketing atmosphere and said that he would love to make Edgbaston his home ground. 


“I’m incredibly excited to join up with the Bears for this year’s Vitality Blast. They were the masters of the red-ball game last year but also have big ambitions in white ball cricket and want to be playing at home on Finals Day,” Stirling said. 


“I’m also relishing making Edgbaston my home. It’s one of the top grounds in the world with a fan base who are renowned for generating the best atmosphere in the game. It’s going to be a special few weeks and I can’t wait to get started,” the Irish opener further added. 


The Vitality Blast starts on May 25, with Warwickshire scheduled to play their first game against Northamptonshire on May 26 at home.


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PAK vs AUS | 3rd Test | Naseem Shah’s reserve swing headlines Day 2 as game still hangs in balance

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