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Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Cricket Ireland announce World Test Championship squad
November 3rd 2016 | International
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With the sudden announcement that the upcoming World Test Championship was to contain twelve teams, including Associate nations Afghanistan and Ireland, the ICC left participants under-prepared for the series. Nonetheless, Head Coach John Bracewell told the press that the he was confident that his team could challenge Bangladesh in familiar Malahide conditions.
New captain Ed Joyce is expected to be crucial.
"You look at Bangladesh's recent success and it's all at home. They've lost every Test match that they have ever played in Europe, and we plan to continue that trend at Fortress Malahide," he told assembled reporters.
There was, however, the surprise of a new captain of the Irish team: 38-year-old Ed Joyce. "Ed has been a vital part of the success of Irish cricket in recent years, and that coupled with his experience as a County Championship captain is why we have asked him to lead this historic Irish team," Bracewell explained.
There are a couple of new faces in the Irish squad: Adam Dennison, an opening batsman who currently averages 206 in the IPC; James Cameron-Dow, consistently the best spinner in Ireland, and Stephen Mullaney, who had been in talks with Cricket Ireland for some time but had previously found money to be a stumbling block.
The full squad is as follows:
Andy Balbirnie Adam Dennison Ed Joyce Nick Larkin William Porterfield Stephen Mullaney Kevin O'Brien Paul Stirling Niall O'Brien Gary Wilson George Dockrell Tyrone Kane Andrew McBrine Tim Murtagh Mark Adair James Cameron-Dow Josh Little Craig YoungI really wish I was having a laugh with this colour scheme, but it's the real one off the CI website. Ewww.
