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England vs Ireland, Test Match 2023 Preview
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England vs Ireland, Test Match Preview: England will play the only test match against their neighboring country Ireland on June 1st, 2023, at the home of Cricket Lord’s, London, England.
England played one test match before and will play the second test match against the Irish side before the Ashes to prepare themselves fully for the Five test match series, which is one of the biggest rivalry series in the Cricketing world.
England’s many players did not participate in the IPL 2023 and did not play many matches, like Ben Stokes, Joe Root, and Mark Wood. They also have not played many matches of IPL because of injury concerns which are one of the worst parts of having a foreign cricketer in your team, as they just want money in their account, but many of them do not give much to the team except a few, like Shane Watson, Shane Warne, and some others.
Ireland is one of the teams with the potential to be the regular team included in the top 10 rank team, just like what Afghanistan did. They showed their skill and heart many times in the past and have been part of ICC big events like World Cups.
They are the 11th full member of the International Cricket Council and the second full member from Europe given permission to play the test matches alongside Afghanistan on June 22, 2017. They even won the ICC World Cup 2011 group stage match against England in a high-scoring match in which Ireland chased down a huge total of 328. Kevin O’Brien was the star performer in that match.
They are very consistent in qualifying in the shorter format like T20 and qualified in years 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2021 T20 World Cup.
England vs Ireland: Head-to-Head Test Record
England and Ireland played only one test match till now, in which England won the match by 143, which was on July 24th, 2019, at Lord’s, London. In the first innings, Ireland surprised England by bowling wonderfully and got them all out on just 85 runs in which Tim Murtagh was the best bowler as he took 5 wickets in the 9-over spell.
While batting in the 1st innings, Ireland made a decent total of 207 runs, in which Andrew Balbirnie made a half-century, and some contributions came from Paul Stirling. From England’s side Stuart Broad, Olly Stone, and Sam Curran took three wickets each in the first innings.
In the 2nd inning of England’s batting, they played quite well and put up a total of 303. Jack Leach scored 92, and Jason Roy scored 72, while Mark Adair and S Thompson took three wickets each from the Ireland side. Ireland needed 182 runs to win, but they failed as England’s bowling showed their skill at the top level and bowled Ireland’s team out on just 38 runs and won the match by 143 runs. Chris Woakes took six wickets in that innings to stop Ireland from one of the lowest totals in test cricket.
England vs Ireland: Test match pitch report and stats: Lord’s, London
| Match Played | 143 matches |
| Batting first won | 51 matches won |
| Batting second won | 41 matches won |
| Matches Drawn | 51 matches drawn |
| Average 1st innings score | 310 runs |
| Average 2nd innings score | 298 runs |
| Average 3rd innings score | 256 runs |
| Average 4th innings score | 156 runs |
| Highest Team innings total | 729/6 by Australia |
| Lowest Team innings total | 38/10 by Ireland |
The last test match played on this pitch was in August 2022 between England and South Africa, in which South Africa thrashed England to win the match by an innings and 12 runs. England won 56 matches on the lord in 143 matches and lost 34 matches.
The last match was a disaster for the home side of England on this ground, and they will be looking to improve the stats to win on the ground. However, England won their last match against Ireland on the same ground, but they had some trouble winning that match.
The pace bowlers enjoy the surface of Lords as they get a lot of swings and bounce from the pitch, and in the last 4 test matches, pacers took 116 wickets, whereas spinners took just 7 wickets. The average first-opening partnership is just 34.01, and the average runs per wicket are 31.07, clearly showing that batters find it hard to deal with pacers.
Team Preview of England Cricket Test Team
England Cricket Test Team will look to give their all in the only test against Ireland to be ready for the Ashes after the test. England team is taking this test match as a practice match for them, but if they are going to take Ireland lightly, they should remember their last test match against the Ireland side in 2019, where England was on the back foot at one point in time.
The big news from the England side came when the England board announced that the legend James Anderson and Ollie Robinson suffered injuries, which will make them miss the test against Ireland that is going to be played on June 1st, 2023.
“For the first Ashes Test, I think (Anderson and Robinson) should be fit. They won’t be fit for this one against Ireland. We’ll just have to monitor it over this next sort of while, but we’ve got some great options right throughout the squad. Stokesy (Ben Stokes) is progressing well too,”
“He looks really fit as well, looks in great order and has a big smile on his face. He is delighted to be back around the group and as our leader, having that sort of energy he brings is fantastic, so again we’ll monitor that and see what happens. I think he’ll bowl at some stage throughout the summer, yeah, no doubt. He is a world-class allrounder and if he is able to bowl, fantastic. If not, we’ll find a way,”
Brendon MacCullum said in the press
England’s team changed their playing style since the arrival of MacCallum as they started to attack in test matches also, and the media gave the term as BazBall for the new approach. The team needs to start from their basics and approach the match in their own way.
Josh Tongue will get the chance to have a debut in the only test against Ireland as the top pace bowler of England are out of the test match. Josh took 162 wickets in 47 first-class matches. It was a bit of a surprise that England did not choose Chris Woakes, but it is a great chance for the rookie Josh to show his skills.
It’s an amazing feeling. [I’m] speechless, really. Even from when I got the first call-up to be in the squad… now being in the actual team, it’s just a dream come true really. Baz [Coach Brendon McCullum] came up to me just before training finished today. I had just finished a gym session, actually, and he came up to me and gave me the good news,”
Josh Tongue said after being picked in the playing 11
Brendon McCullum is really impressed by the young pacer and said that Josh is the “rough diamond,” and the England team can polish him to make their main pace bowler, but it has a lot of time for that.
Team Preview of Ireland Cricket Test Team
Ireland will go all out once again against their neighboring country England in an only test match at Lord’s cricket ground. Andy Balbirnie will lead the side of Ireland and was part of the team which played against England in 2019, and he was the highest run scorer from his side.
Balbirnie shared an emotional story before coming to Lord’s Ground as he shared with the media when they asked how he felt captaining Ireland at Lord’s Ground against England. He washed his cloth, but there was a bit of dirty left, so his father said to give them to a dry cleaner, and when his father gave him the T-shirt, he got emotional and said that it was hard to believe my son was leading the Ireland cricket team at Lord’s.
In the last head to head Ireland showed some skills in the first innings of the test match, but in the second innings, they were not able to handle the pressure and let the match slip from their hand, which might be going to be the best chance they had to win the test match against England team in England.
Ireland does not have a good record in the test as till now, they played 6 matches and lost all 6, which is one sad thing for the Ireland cricket team. The last test match they played was against Sri Lanka on April 24-28, 2023, at Galle, Srilanka. They lost that match by an innings and 10 runs, and they need to forget it because the way Sri Lanka batted against them was just shameful for Ireland’s team.
The Sri Lanka team scored 704 with 3 wickets down, which was a heavy hammering by the Srilankan team on Ireland bowlers. However, Ireland also batted pretty well in the first innings, scoring 492 runs.
Ireland’s team captain also stated that they know that England will come hard on them, and their main motto is to qualify for the World Cup. He also talks about England’s upcoming Ashes series.
The Ashes is their most important thing. I’d imagine they’ll be looking at this as a glorified warm-up. If we get bowled out for 30 in both innings against England but qualify for both World Cups, that’s a win; that’s our most successful summer ever. I hope that doesn’t happen, but World Cups are where we get our most publicity on the world stage and back home – particularly for a tournament in India and what that brings.
Andy Balbirnie said to media
Players to watch out for in England vs Ireland match
1- Joe Root will be the first batter to look out for as right now he is the most successful batsman in the England side scored 10948 runs and also took 53 wickets in 129 test matches he played. In his last test match in New Zealand, he scored 153 and 95 runs, which was one of his best test matches. His last 10 matches record is also great as he scored 754 runs with an average of 53.85
2- Harry Brook will be key for England in the Ashes series after giving an amazing performance since his debut in the test match. He needs to score more runs to keep his run-scoring feast in test cricket on against Ireland. However, he had a horrible IPL where he totally failed to score runs except one century, but in the test, he seems a better fit, and in his last 6 matches, he scored 809 runs with an amazing average of 80.90.
3- Matthew Potts can be one of the best bowlers for the England side as James Anderson and Olli Robinson are out of the test match due to injury. He did not play an international test match since 2022, and his last test match was against South Africa, in which he took 2 wickets only. Recently in first-class cricket, he performed quite well, and in his last 5 first last matches, he took 30 wickets.
4- Mark Adair can be a crucial player for the team as he is one of the best-swinging all-rounders alongside Curtis Campher. He recently scored 62 and 85 runs against the Ireland team while playing in the Essex side and took 2 wickets.
5- Paul Stirling will be another player for the Ireland side who can hold off England bowlers as in the practice match against Essex, he scored a century and is one of the most successful players from Ireland.
The match between England and Ireland will be an exciting one, and it will be important for both teams for their future series. England will look to win it by a huge margin to give themselves a bonus point in the WTC points tally.
England vs Ireland Probable Playing XIs:
Probable Lineup of England (ENG)
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Josh Tongue, Jack Leach
Probable Lineup of Ireland (IRL)
Andrew Balbirnie(C), Paul Stirling, Lorcan Tucker, Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Harry Tector, Andrew McBrine, James McCollum, PJ Moor, Fionn Hand, Craig Young,
