Boyd Rankin beats homecoming nerves

29-year old Boyd Rankin took his career best 4 for 46 in his England one-day debut against a modest Ireland side. The England seamer scalped the wickets of Paul Stirling, Ed Joyce and towards the end of the innings; he got rid of William Porterfield and Jonny Mooney to earn a career best figure for England on debut.

He also had good support from Steve Finn, who although didn’t pick up a wicket, bowled well to finish with the figures 10-1-44-0. Boyd Rankin and Steve Finn are likely to open the bowling attack for England in the one-day series against Australia as James Anderson and Stuart Broad are rested for the series.

Ashley Giles, England bowling coach, praised Boyd Rankin for his wonderful performance on debut. “All credit to him. He was probably more nervous yesterday than if he’d been playing against Australia,” he said, “with him going home and all the talk around the Irish players playing for England. His first couple of overs were a bit nervous but he settled very quickly. To finish with four: what a great debut. He’ll take that confidence into the next match.”

Rankin and Finn were considered as the frontline seamers for England. Ben Stokes was the third seamer for England, who finished with the figures of 0 for 51 in his 10 overs. Although he was wicket less, he bowled tight line and length and kept the check on Ireland batsmen.

“Ben was our third seamer and his bowling has really developed over the last 12 months, and I thought he bowled pretty well yesterday. We have an inexperienced attack for these one-dayers and it’s going to be a steep learning curve. In terms of the balance it was great to look down and see Stokes at No. 8, and at one point it looked as though we might need it. I think we are lucky in his case as he’s a genuine allrounder and can fill two spots.”

Ashley Giles also talked about England’s top order collapse against Ireland. They slumped to 48/4 before a world-record partnership of 226 for fifth wicket between Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara rescued England.

“It was a very useful exercise. Obviously there are areas we can work on. Ireland setting us a challenging target was, in hindsight, good for the side because it put them under pressure. It was a bit closer than we’d have liked to be at one stage but overall for us to firstly see some of those guys in an international environment, and then for Morgan and Bopara to get us home was extremely worthwhile.”

Ashley Giles, during his time as one-day coach, was unable to select a full strength squad for England. “Myself and Andy Flower, in our conversations, have always accepted that this would have to happen to manage the player workloads. We want to keep their services for the long-term. In the Champions Trophy we had our No 1 side out, barring Kevin Pietersen and that’s our aim: to have our best sides available for the key tournaments.

“Between times we are going to have to rest and rotate. It does give us a chance to look at some of the young talent coming through, particularly with an eye on 2015 World Cup. We could say our best team – the one that played the Champions Trophy plus Kevin Pietersen – could get us to the World Cup. It might be, but it might not be and some of youngsters might be needed.”

“It’s going pretty smoothly. Myself and Andy have a good relationship. I feel, and I hope Andy feels the same, that we can talk about where we are and what we want. I’m looking at the one-day squad then have to take into account what Andy wants for the Test team. We certainly haven’t had any fallings out.”