GRAHAM FORD HAS named his Ireland squad for next week’s inaugural Test match against Pakistan, with the head coach springing a couple of selection surprises, notably the inclusion of uncapped bowler Nathan Smith.
William Porterfield has fully recovered from a knee injury to captain the side for a first foray into the Test arena, while the golden generation of players — including Ed Joyce, Kevin and Niall O’Brien and Gary Wilson — are rewarded for playing such a pivotal role in Ireland’s relentless pursuit of ascension to Test-playing status.
Boyd Rankin is the only member of the 14-man panel to have experienced Test cricket before, having featured for England during their 2013/14 Ashes tour in Australia, and will lead Ireland’s bowling attack at Malahide.
The early season form of Stuart Thompson, Tyrone Kane and James Shannon has been recognised with call-ups by Ford, with George Dockrell, Simi Singh, Barry McCarthy and Peter Chase among those who can consider themselves unlucky to miss out.
The exclusion of Dockrell, in particular, is a significantly harsh call considering he has been an ever-present in the side for the last eight years, but Ford has opted for Andy McBrine as the front-line spinner.
Now that the South African has unveiled his hand, the team largely picks itself with the batting order having a settled and experienced look to it, while it seems Smith and Kane are in direct competition for the final seam-bowling place.
Ireland’s team will be confirmed by Porterfield at the toss next Friday morning, with the game being shown live on Sky Sports and a nightly highlights show available on RTÉ2.
Ireland squad: William Porterfield (captain), Andrew Balbirnie, Ed Joyce, Tyrone Kane, Andy McBrine, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, Nathan Smith, Paul Stirling, James Shannon, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson.
William Porterfield
Tyrone Kane
Tim Murtagh
Stuart Thompson
Niall O'Brien
Kevin O'Brien
Nathan Smith
Ed Joyce
Gary Wilson
James Shannon
Andrew Balbirnie
Andy McBrine
Boyd Rankin
Paul Stirling
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
Delighted for the lad! Would be great if in the future more young Irish players could come back for half a season play some LOI and go back with that bit of experience, seems to have done Eoghan no harm
Ambrose and boyata are both a liability,simunovic still an unknown quantity so I’d say it’s a toss up between o Connell and kolo to partner sviatchenko.would be great to see eoghan nail down a regular spot and continue his progress
That is brilliant news for Celtic and Ireland.
I watched the match – O’Connell showed great character throughout the game.
Can’t but read Rogers interview in his voice
Lads…. were ye watching a different game,,, he was 100% to blame for the goal…. lost his man completely
Blueman, you’re right, the goal was his fault but his head didn’t go down after it as most young players would and he went from strength to strength as the game went on.
It’s a zonal marking system, therefore no man to lose. Although he could have been better for it so could every other defender in the box and if Gordon stayed on his line maybe it wouldn’t have been a goal so 100% is very harsh on the the young fella. For a 20 y/o making his first European start in a notoriously tough place to go he done very little wrong and was one of Celtics better players. If you were watching the match and not just the goal you would have seen that!
O Connell did well all things taken into account,good result to take back to glasgow
Fact is the goal was his fault, you can dress it up anyway you want,… football at the highest level is a harsh game, and goals decide games, if he wasn’t a young irish player playing for celtic , people wouldn’t be raving about his performance and making excuses for his defending for the goal… think we need to take off the green white and gold glasses here…. and I did watch the full game
Blueman there’s nobody bigging him up.if simunovic can be kept fit and playing regularly,o connell won’t get much game time.at the moment he’s the pick of a bad bunch and just a potentially good defender
Blueman get a grip ffs. He’s 20 years of age, made one or two small mistakes in the biggest game of his career to date. Start blaming the young man now and giving him abuse about the goal could shatter his confidence, that’s why he’s being praised. Attitudes like yours is the reason a lot of talented youngsters don’t make it in the game!
Hahaha…. one or two small mistakes???… wouldn’t call losing his man for a goal in a champions lge game a small mistake. … its quite a significant one. If young pros can’t take a bit of criticism they may as well forget about a career in the game…. and I thought he he will let a bit of criticism on the 42 get to him… if he he was that type of character he would never have made it this far
You said people wouldn’t be raving about his performance if he wasn’t Irish or playing for Celtic. Well this is an Irish site and an article about Celtic, so obviously people who have a better understanding of the game than yourself (and people who really watched the game) think he merits praise for his performance! And if you’re a Celtic supporter you should be ashamed of yourself :-/
I am not a celtic fan … I am looking at the game… which I watched in full from an unbiased point of view… it’d obvious your biased towards him, , and if u can’t see he was at fault for that goal than it is you who doesn’t really know that much about football….