The
Wait is over
The moment has arrived at last for Ireland cricket. A
moment for which they have been waiting for a decade. The dream to play in
England at Lords will be fulfilled for Irish cricketers this weekend. The big
thing is that at last England have acknowledged the importance of Ireland in
cricket. However both the teams will be targeting different goals in the
series, While England will be treating the series as a preparation for
Champions Trophy and providing platform to non regular players to establish
themselves. Ireland will be playing to prove a point that they not only deserve
test status but they are a fine limited over team as well and top teams need to
play with them more. However things won’t be easy for an Irish team going
through a phase of transition.
Ireland
in Transition
The point of tragedy is that the tour comes at a time when Ireland have
lost some of its most experienced quality players in past two years like Trent Johnston, John Mooney,Alex Cusak
due to retirement. While few others like Porterfield, Ed Joyce and Niell
O’Brian are at the fag end of their careers’. A lot of us tend to forget that
even non test nations also go through the phase of transition and that had been
evident in Ireland’s recent games where
they have failed to win even against Afghanistan. While losing is no shame but the
way Ireland prides itself it is hard to swallow losses that have been suffered
in past two years against some of the nations which were once weaker to them.
While Joyce understands this but he wants no excuse, it is a big stage for
Ireland to impress the whole World, two big losses and the confidence of World
might shake in their abilities, what Ireland need to do is to make a match of
it . For it to happen it will be
important that seniors make the game out of this. The responsibility will be
huge on O’Brian brothers , Captain William Porterfield and Paul Sterling apart
from Joyce himself.
England
to start Campaign for Champions Trophy
England on the other
hand has used the series to provide platform for those who might be on their
radar later in summer. The induction of Ben Duckett is one such move, the
youngster was dropped after a horrible test series against India. The absence
of Chris Woakes, Ben Stoakes and Joss Butler means that Sam Billings, Jonny
Bairstow and Jake Ball have great chance to prove their case.Return of Mark
Wood will provide England much needed edge in their bowling. In batting England
have evolved like no other team. Jason Roy and Alex Hales are the most
explosive opening pair in modern cricket, In Joe Root, Eoin Morgan they have
formidable no.3 and 4.While Moeen Ali makes up the fifth batting option, It
will be fight between Jonny Bairstow or Ben Duckett for 6th spot
with Sam Billings taking the wicketkeeper role. Adil Rashid , MarkWood and
Willey will for the bowling pair with a toss of place between Liam Plunkett and
Stev Finn and Jake Ball.
Expected
teams
England
1. Alex Hales 2. Jason Roy 3. Joe Root 4.Eoin Morgon 5.Ben Duckett/Jonny Bairstow 6. Sam Billings 7. Moeen Ali 8.Adil Rashid
9.Liam Plunkett/Stev Finn/Jake Ball 10. Mark Wood 11. David Willey
Ireland 1. Ed Joyce 2. Paul Stirling 3.William Porterfield
4.Niall O’Brian 5.Kevin O’brian 6 . Andrew Balbirnie/ Garry Wilson7.Stuart Thompson
8. George Docrell 9. Andy McBrine
10. Tim Murtagh 11.Craig Young
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