Ireland vs Pakistan, only Test, May 11 - 15

[mikesiva]

Fri May 11 - Tue May 15 11:00 local (10:00 GMT | 11:00 BST)
Only Test - Ireland v Pakistan
The Village, Malahide, Dublin

[andy]

lol very early thread Erm in all seriousness, you would hope from Ireland's point of view that hopefully rain won't ruin the contest, and that a good game is played.

[andy]

odd that there's nothing on BBC or cricinfo about ireland vs somerset warm up game thats being played atm..

[Arthur Crabtree]

Would be great to be there to see this.

[Arthur Crabtree]

odd that there's nothing on BBC or cricinfo about ireland vs somerset warm up game thats being played atm..

There's BBC radio commentary.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Still no scorecard.

Somerset have a Marcus Trescothick stand at Taunton.

[andy]

Ireland being completely dominated by Somerset, not good signs

[Making_Splinters]

How completely unpredictable.

[andy]

The Ireland side of 5 years ago was a side that could have handled test status, im afriad to watch them play Pakistan, could be over quikcer than the 4 day test between Zim and SA the other month

[Making_Splinters]

I don't think any side that Ireland have ever fielded could handle test status. I've said many times on here that what should have happened is the aspiring Test sides should have been given an alternate FTP for a few years playing against Test teams A sides to build up their experience internationally before playing against the Test sides proper.

Afghanistan are a far more promising side than Ireland, and India have already come out and said they'll be fielding essentially an A team when they play their Test against them. I'm all in favour of expanding the Test nations, but the last thing the game needs are more mismatches being thrown into the calendar. Let's face it, this Pakistan Test is essentially nothing but a glorified warm up for them and lip service to the new kid on the block.

[andy]

Hmm I'm happy Afghanistan have test status, they have something about them in every department, Ireland however lack in almost all departments, their bowling is military medium, they lack a genuine spinner, their batting won't hold up to international quality bowling, and i do fear for them

[mikesiva]

Squad: Sarfraz Ahmed (capt &wk), Azhar Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Sami Aslam, Haris Sohail, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Saad Ali, Asad Shafiq, Usman Salahuddin, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Abbas, Hasan Ali,Rahat Ali, Faheem Ashraf

In: Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Usman Salahuddin, Saad Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Rahat Ali

Outs: Wahab Riaz, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... land-tests

[ianp1970]

odd that there's nothing on BBC or cricinfo about ireland vs somerset warm up game thats being played atm..

There's BBC radio commentary.

I've seen on Twitter that live commentary is on Guerrilla Cricket

[Arthur Crabtree]

These are cricinfos guesses for the two sides.

1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Azhar Ali, 3 Haris Sohail, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Babar Azam, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt, wk), 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Rahat Ali, 11 Mohammad Abbas

1 William Porterfield (capt), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Ed Joyce, 4 Niall O'Brien (wk), 5 Andy Balbirnie, 6 Gary Wilson, 7 Kevin O'Brien, 8 Stuart Thompson, 9 Andy McBrine, 10 Boyd Rankin, 11 Tim Murtagh.

Pakistan are quite inexperienced themselves. At least that Ireland team has a cap between them. Pleased that Boyd will get another go. Good luck to him and his colleagues,

[Arthur Crabtree]

No Yasir of course.

11am start. Wonder if there will be traditional Irish weather? Apparently rain for the first two days.