Ireland batsman Ed Joyce believes that England pose a huge challenge in Friday’s clash at Malahide Cricket Club, despite the visiting side being shorn of many of their top names.
James Taylor will captain an inexperienced England one-day side that contains five uncapped players in the squad.
Taylor will lead the side in Dublin in just his 18th one-day international, while Zafar Ansari, Sam Billings, James Vince, Lewis Gregory and David Willey are all in with a chance of making their senior debuts.
They are joined by Jonathan Bairstow, Tim Bresnan, Steven Finn, Lewis Gregory, Alex Hales and Jason Roy.
England's frontliners return from the West Indies on Thursday - just one day before the 8 May fixture - and with their World Cup skipper Eoin Morgan at the Indian Premier League, have been forced into that bold selection for the clash.
However, Joyce is under no illusion that England are the favourites for the tie on the north side of Dublin.
“England’s Test side has been out in the Caribbean playing a Test series there and obviously they only get back today or tomorrow. This game was scheduled a few years ago and obviously scheduled for this particular time,” Joyce told RTÉ Sport.
“It looks like more of an ODI side, obviously they have a lot of guys who haven’t been captained yet by England, but are playing county cricket over there. We know them and I think they’ll be very strong. People like Alex Hales and Jason Roy and these guys.
“They are exciting England players and we know we will have our hands full. And we haven’t managed to beat an English team [in Ireland]. So until we do that I don’t think we can complain about the team that comes over.
“We’re hopeful if we get our A game on Friday we’ve got a great chance of winning.”
“They are exciting England players and we know we have our hands full. And we haven’t managed to beat an English team. So until we do that I don’t think we can complain about the team that comes over" - Ed Joyce
At 36-years-old Sussex clubman Joyce is approaching his final years in the game, but he insists that his love for the sport is as strong as ever.
“I’m 36 now, so in the twilight of the career, but absolutely loving it,” said Joyce. “Obviously, I had a fantastic World Cup, not quite capped off by getting through to the knock-out stages, which we would have loved, but I think we performed pretty well out there.
“We loved the whole competition and we got great press as well.
“People at home got behind us, which is fantastic for cricket in Ireland. If you’re then coming straight back into a county season it’s quite difficult, but I love coming home for these games.
“We’ve obviously got Australia coming up in August as well.”
With Phil Simmons now departed as Ireland head coach and John Bracewell in this is a time of flux for the squad, but Joyce feels time was right for a change in leadership.
“We’ll miss Phil but he’d been there a long time and achieved a lot as Irish coach and there is definitely a shelf life for a coach,” said Joyce.
“He did a fantastic job to manage to do the job for that long and I think if you talk to any coach if they go beyond five years it’s an amazing effort, because voices do become stall and you want to hear from different people at different stages.
“So I think he did an amazing job to keep us playing so well for so such a long time.
“We’ve got John Bracewell coming in. He’s got great pedigree. He was a coach at Gloucester in county cricket for a lot of the ‘90s when they were very successful on the one-day scene, especially and he coached in New Zealand for a long period as well.
"We’re hopeful that we can tap into his vast experience of the game and hopefully he can bring us forward to Test cricket in a few years, and obviously in the short term to perform in these games.”
What does the future hold for Joyce? “If I could play for Ireland for another couple of years and play in Ireland’s first Test match in three of four years’ time that would be amazing.
