Ireland name 14-man squad for 1st ODI against England

Cricket Ireland have named a 14-member squad to take on hosts England in the first of the three One Day Internationals at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday. Quite a few uncapped players have been picked in the squad, most of whom are in line to make their debut in the One Day format.

Circumstances have enabled the selection of 14 players in a squad for each match, with the option of making a player substitution if required. Ireland have travelled to Southampton with a total of 22 players, so that they can bring in any of the eight reserve players to subsequent matches.

Here is the squad for the 1st ODI:

Andrew Balbirnie (c)
Paul Stirling (vc)
Curtis Campher
Gareth Delany
Josh Little
Andrew McBrine
Barry McCarthy
Kevin O’Brien
William Porterfield
Boyd Rankin
Simi Singh
Harry Tector
Lorcan Tucker (wk)
Craig Young

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This is what Andrew White, Chair of National Men’s Selectors had to say.
“These ODIs are not only a great opportunity for our squad to test themselves against the world champions, but are extremely important in the context of qualification for the 2023 Cricket World Cup. Every player in our squad is lacking game time as a result of the lockdown, so the two warm-up games gave the players an opportunity to gain their first competitive action since early March and there were some very positive performances on display over those two matches.”

“However, our deliberations on selection took into account not only those two warm-up games, but also form shown earlier in the year before lockdown. In addition, we also took into account that we have a larger squad here than would be normal, so we decided on a side for the first game only at this point. This means that the eight players who miss out on this playing squad may still have an opportunity to feature in the series.”

“One notable inclusion for Irish fans is Curtis Campher, who has been called up to the Ireland senior squad for the first time. Curtis has impressed selectors and coaches with both his batting and bowling, played very well for the Ireland Wolves against Namibia in February, has trained well in recent weeks and provides a great balance to the side. Fans saw a little of what he can offer during the intra-squad match last Wednesday, and we believe he’ll be ready to step up if called upon.”

“Another exciting one for Irish fans is Harry Tector, who comes into the reckoning now to make his ODI debut. Harry has already featured in 20 T20 Internationals for Ireland, and has demonstrated during warm-up games and in training that he is ready for this format of the game. His half-century on Sunday was against an excellent attack, and demonstrated a maturity in his batting for a player so early in their career.”

“Many players on this trip can consider themselves unfortunate to miss out in the first match day squad, including our leading wicket-taker in 2019, Mark Adair. As fans are aware, Mark underwent surgery earlier this year, and while that was successful, it has unfortunately meant that he is not yet back to the level that we need him at for international cricket. We know that he isn’t far away, but we also need to recognise that Sunday’s game was his first competitive outing since the Caribbean in January.”