The Irish Men’s Cricket team will play a first ever Test Match at Stormont in Northern Ireland next week.
An historic Test win in Abu Dhabi earlier this year gave the team their first-ever such victory in only their eighth match
Next week’s fixture will be only the second Test Match in Ireland – the inaugural match was against Pakistan in 2018.
An expected crowd of around 1,200 will include many young players who might be inspired to take up the sport or to continue with their involvement through schools and clubs across Northern ireland.
Test cricket extending over five days is still seen by purists as the ultimate form of the sport, despite being overtaken in popularity and profile by shorter formats like the one day and T20 games.
“On the back of our first victory [against Afghanistan], we’re definitely looking to back that up with another win,” said Natioal Team selector Andrew White speaking to media yesterday.
“We’re not looking to just pick a squad that will compete, we’re looking at a squad that can actually win the Test match – by taking 20 wickets and scoring the runs that we need to score arguably in the first innings to set up the victory.”
“Scott Irvine, our performance analyst, is one of the best in the business in terms of providing myself, the coaches and players with the crucial information that we need to make decisions. The information he has given us to select the squad puts us in an informed position, and will hopefully give us the best chance of winning.”
“While there are lots of familiar names in there, I suppose the two names that stand out are the inclusion of Matthew Humphreys and Gavin Hoey.”
“Humphreys made his Test debut in Sri Lanka and found the going difficult against good players of spin out in the subcontinent. He’d admit himself that he went through a period of a loss of form and maybe a loss of confidence, but he’s worked extremely hard to come back into the reckoning and his performances for Ireland Wolves have been exactly what we were looking for. Obviously in the West Indies last year for Emerging Ireland, then in Nepal, and has now backed it up in the recent series for the Emerging Ireland side against West Indies Academy, where he took 10 wickets. But it’s the consistency he has shown over the last period which has been really pleasing and he very much deserves his call up.”
“Hoey is a talented leg spinner, and his ability to spin the ball both ways gives us a strong wicket-taking option. Again, he’s a player that’s been on the radar for a while and can play across all three formats. But this is an opportunity for him to come into the Test squad and get used to the environment.”
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