If you told me Ireland vs England in test cricket was going to happened on would laugh you off. But now it gives me a sense of curiosity and anything is possible in cricket as we just have seen from the World cup final. Ireland will be no pushover as the conditions will be similar to the conditions for their first test match against Pakistan which saw Ireland fight back to beat by the class of a establish test team.
Ireland has come along way from qualifying for 2007 world cup which saw Ireland claim some huge wins in that time from beating Pakistan to beating England in 2011 and knocking off Zimbabwe in an ODI series just now.
Ireland team for this test against the old enemy will have players like Will Porterfield who is a journeyman who has played county cricket for over 13 years and could off been tempted to play for England but took a risk and now is captaining Ireland and for Boyd Rankin who play against his former side as he only player to represent England and Ireland in test cricket. Both players will be ready to knock off the English and Porterfield said in a press conference before Wednesday “It right up there, if not the pinnacle for everything that’s been achieved with Irish cricket “. Ireland squad consists of Ireland squad: W Porterfield (c), M Adair, A Balbirnie, A McBrine, J McCollum, T Murtagh, K O’Brien, B Rankin, S Singh, P Stirling, S Thompson, L Tucker, G Wilson, C Young. Four of the players could be playing test cricket for the first time which could be a great thing.
The English squad is Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Lewis Gregory, Jack Leach, Jason Roy, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.
This test match could be a flop but either way, this match will achieve a chance for cricket to grow and hopefully if a minnow can beat a test giant maybe this will give hope to the other test hopefuls like Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
Paddy Sport's News 