Ireland announce 14-member squad for first-ever Test against Zimbabwe
Ireland announced a familiar 14-member squad for their one-off Test against Zimbabwe on Wednesday, July 17. It will be Ireland's first in the longest format against Zimbabwe, starting in Belfast on July 25.
Both teams are coming off poor results recently, with Ireland losing all three completed games in the 2024 T20 World Cup and Zimbabwe suffering a 1-4 T20I series defeat to India at home.
Andrew Balbirnie will lead the side with Matthew Humphreys returning to the Test lineup and Gavin Hoey receiving a maiden call-up.
Chief Selector Andrew White welcomed Humphreys' return to the Test squad by saying:
"Humphreys made his Test debut in Sri Lanka and found the going difficult against good players of spin out in the subcontinent. He'd admit himself that he went through a period of a loss of form and maybe a loss of confidence, but he's worked extremely hard to come back into the reckoning."
On newcomer Hoey, White said:
"Hoey is a talented leg spinner, and his ability to spin the ball both ways gives us a strong wicket-taking option. Again, he’s a player that's been on the radar for a while and can play across all three formats."
Ireland made history when they won their first-ever Test against Afghanistan by six wickets in UAE earlier this year.
"On the back of our first victory [against Afghanistan], we’re definitely looking to back that up with another win. We're not looking to just pick a squad that will compete, we're looking at a squad that can actually win the Test match - by taking 20 wickets and scoring the runs that we need to score arguably in the first innings to set up the victory," concluded White.
Ireland have played eight Tests in total with the first seven ending in defeats until the Afghanistan win. They played their first-ever long-format game against Pakistan in 2018.
While they will play Zimbabwe for the first time in red-ball cricket, Ireland have a slender edge against the African side in the other two formats. They lead 8-7 in T20Is and 10-8 in ODIs.
Ireland squad for one-off Test vs Zimbabwe
Andrew Balbirnie (c), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gavin Hoey, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Andy McBrine, Barry McCarthy, James McCollum, PJ Moor, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, and Craig Young.