Cricket Ireland has today announced five 'squads' that will play in multiple formats across Ireland Men’s back-to-back tours of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in March and April.
The first tour is to Bangladesh where it will feature a warm-up fixture on 15 March, then three one-day internationals, three T20 Internationals and a Test Match. This will be the first-ever Test Match played between the two sides, and the first multi-format series the two sides have played at senior level.
The second tour to Sri Lanka will feature a Test Match and two one-day internationals. Similarly, this will be the first-ever Test Match played between the two sides, and the first multi-format series the two sides have played at senior level.
"The core piece for us around red ball cricket is that it is a bit of a blank canvas – we've obviously got a bit of work to do in that space, but it’s exciting," coach Heinrich Malan said.
"We’re not going to try and play like anyone else, we’ll play our own way and that is the key message within our environment at the moment. We want our guys to go out there and figure out how we best play red ball cricket – it’s not that we need to block or play essentially T20 cricket.
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"Will there be some hiccups along the way, undoubtedly – but there will also be some good periods as well. We’ve shown that we have a really good group of young, talented cricketers coming through and Test cricket is a new frontier for us to discover, and we’re really looking forward to that challenge.
"10 of the 15 players that are part of those two Test squads have not played test cricket, so potentially we have 10 players that could debut. It doesn't mean it's the first time they play for Ireland, but it's the first time they could play test cricket.
"Look, at one end it's an exciting challenge, but at the other end it's a pretty daunting challenge thinking we haven't played a lot of red ball cricket. It’s a case of looking at the players that have been playing consistent cricket over periods of time and then trying to marry that up with the conditions that we're trying to go to.
"We've got a couple of guys in there that haven't necessarily played a lot of cricket, but we see the skill set that we're looking for and we've got the opportunity to go and test it out and see what they can give us in the long run."
The squad is due to depart Dublin on 11 March.
Ireland squads
v. Bangladesh ODI series (18/20/23 March): Andrew Balbirnie (Capt), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Stephen Doheny, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White.
v. Bangladesh T20I series (27/29/31 March): Andrew Balbirnie (Capt), Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Barry McCarthy, Conor Olphert, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young.
v. Bangladesh Test Match (4-8 April): Andrew Balbirnie (Capt), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Murray Commins, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, James McCollum, PJ Moor, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White.
v. Sri Lanka Test Match (18-22 April): Andrew Balbirnie (Capt), Curtis Campher, Murray Commins, George Dockrell, Matthew Foster, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, James McCollum, PJ Moor, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White.
v. Sri Lanka ODI series (23/26 April): Paul Stirling (Capt), Curtis Campher, Murray Commins, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Stephen Doheny, Matthew Foster, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Andrew McBrine, Conor Olphert, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Craig Young.
