A New Day For Ireland Cricket Team As Test Return Beckons!

Great ire be drawn to you, if you ignore Ireland!

You could be a West Indian who loves six hitting and the adventure associated with massive blows. You could be an Australian hugely in love with the Sheffield Shield cricket. You could even be the die hard South Africa fan for whom the key tagline since always is Proteas fire and Proteas fire alone. Or, you could well be a cover drive lover for whom Babar Azam is the real deal in the game.

But at this time, all the big eyes are on the Indian subcontinent, where in the country considered most powerful in the great game of Cricket, the Indian Premier League is on.

It’s not too hard to understand why that’s the case, truth be told. After all, where else would you expect to have a Brian Lara as a mentor, Kohli as among the most premier batsmen around and someone like Ben Stokes and MS Dhoni participating with rich aplomb?

But is that all that’s mighty and impressive about the game at the moment?

Could it be that something else too beckons our attention just as much as the famed franchise-based cricket series going live in India at this time?

To those of us who could be called intrepid cricket lovers, perhaps the fact that the Ireland cricket team are soon going to be embracing a new day in their journey is just as important as the IPL or the fact that MS Dhoni is going to be playing his final contest in the T20 league this time around.

Ireland, since their inception in the game, which occurred a decade and a half ago, have done some exceptional things in Cricket.

They beat England in their very first 50-over game that was part of the 2011 World Cup. They gave international cricket mind-boggling hitters like Kevin O’Brien, who unfortunately isn’t an international as of now.

They proved through players like Ed Joyce, Niall O’Brien and William Porterfield that their batsmen too could align grace and the power of timing akin to an Ian Bell or Shikhar Dhawan.

In talents like Paul Stirling, Ireland proved that they had some of the best and brute hitters in white ball cricket. Anyone who says that Stirling isn’t already a legend of the game is perhaps short sighted or considers only the big names of the sport as the only thriving forces.

Yet, most interestingly, they beat the West Indies of all teams in the Caribbean for the first time ever to seal the fate of a three-match ODI series in their favour. The West Indians led by Pollard lived to regret that day but Ireland in their post-COVID cricketing history made an entire nation proud in 2022.

That was when the visiting Ireland team wasn’t even captained by regular leader Andy Balbernie.

A new day for Andy Balbernie and his Ireland side

Now, in a few hours’ time, their very white ball leader Andy Balbernie will be ready to don the bright Irish cap under white clothing for the first time ever in three years as the team will finally return to Test match cricket.

After having stayed away from five-dayers for no fewer than three years, Ireland, who are currently buzzing with excitement having something special prepared for their return to the highest echelons of the game.

Given that they sent up and coming names in their ranks- PJ Moor and James McCollum to Mumbai in a bid to prepare for their big Bangladesh contest goes to show that Ireland aren’t leaving anything to chance.

And are, as a matter of factly, treating their comeback to Test match cricket by exercising full caution and preparation!

As a matter of factly, Ireland are bound to visit Sri Lanka and Bangladesh for Test series’ in what can be dubbed a contest that may just be even stevens given the shaky form both subcontinental forces have demonstrated especially in the recent times.

Interestingly, a former Mumbai batter Vinayak Mane, who’s been seen at the Parsi Gymkhana ground along with the Irish talents remarked excitedly about what he saw ahead of the big day for Ireland:

“They will be facing that in the Tests in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They were mainly facing different kind of spinners. Our role was to arrange lots of spinners, and give them a feedback how they approach. I think they are pretty well equipped. They have decent techniques. They are very aware of what they will encounter in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They will be facing couple of left-arm spinners and off spinners. Nowadays professionals do have a lot of information about their opposition.”

Let’s just hope that the international cricketing media that stays glued to every single detail, which are too often too frivolous to note given cricket journalism’s falling standards can be equally vocal and enthusiastic about Ireland’s big day in what lies ahead.