Afghanistan and Ireland gain test status

corbies

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They don't want to overwork the players. And if a purpose of warm ups is to get used to the conditions then Essex is a lot more English than Ireland.
In addition, losing to Essex would be brushed off as warming up and not caring about results, losing to Ireland would affect Test rankings. They wouldn't be able to take it too easy, just in case, which would make it a burden rather than a benefit.

That said, I'd like to see us play one Test against Ireland every Ashes tour.
 
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In addition, losing to Essex would be brushed off as warming up and not caring about results, losing to Ireland would affect Test rankings. They wouldn't be able to take it too easy, just in case, which would make it a burden rather than a benefit.

That said, I'd like to see us play one Test against Ireland every Ashes tour.
Adding an Ireland game to the Ashes and an Afghanistan game to India tours would be a good idea, but it would probably mean playing Ireland and Afghanistan far more than New Zealand/South Africa/Sri Lanka.
 
Adding an Ireland game to the Ashes and an Afghanistan game to India tours would be a good idea, but it would probably mean playing Ireland and Afghanistan far more than New Zealand/South Africa/Sri Lanka.

May as well add a Zimbabwe Test to every SAf tour as well
 
Wouldn't be against that myself.

I'm not against it, would prefer full series but baby steps. And tbf they probably only need 1-2 test series until they improve
 
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will it actually happen though as these test tours generally get cancelled/postponed etc, lets hope they proceed.

the Zimbabwe test series for june/july 2018 has now been scaled down to a odi/T20 series.

Zimbabwe did that themselves because they can't afford to host tests.

Ireland series will definitely go ahead. In 2019 it seems to be attached to the Ashes.
 
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Zimbabwe did that themselves because they can't afford to host tests.

Ireland series will definitely go ahead. In 2019 it seems to be attached to the Ashes.
Yeah exactly right also Zimbabwe have a bigger chance of doing well in ODIs plus if they make the world cup they will want to prepare for that.
 
Anyone wanna give each team a crack at the best XI? I assume most of the Irish 35-36 year olds are still kicking around like Mooney and the O'Brien's

Figuring out the best Afghan team at any point is always a bit of an exercise, as their team selection can appear quite haphazard.

Javed Ahmadi
Ihsanullah Janat
Rahmat Shah
Asghar Stanikzai
Nasir Jamal
Mohammad Shahzad+
Mohammad Nabi
Dawlat Zadran
Rashid Khan
Zahir Khan
Hamid Hassan

Hashmatullah Shahidi
Noor Ali Zadran
Afsar Zazai
Yamin Ahmadzai

Ireland's will be pretty much 'the usual' to start off with, but a few of these names may disappear quite quickly.

Porterfield*
Stirling
Joyce
Balbirnie
Wilson+
Singh
K O'Brien
Dockrell
Rankin
Murtagh
Chase

N O'Brien
Anderson
Young
McCarthy

What's the current dutch line-up like? Are the Cooper's in, and van der Gugten? Would RtD potentially come back to play if they were granted test status?
I'd be completely against the Dutch getting test status or making this ODI league to be honest.

I'm glad for Afghanistan and Ireland because they're drawing most their players domestically (as in actual Afghans and Irishmen - most the Irish team is now Irish born) and have worked on making their own domestic competition.

The Dutch side is all South Africans and Australians with Dutch grandmothers. UAE is Pakistani and Indian expats.

Expats are fine and all but for a team to have any chance of making the next level players have to be drawn from domestic competitions.

This is a bit unfair. The Dutch blooded plenty of homegrown talent in the ICup this time around, though they certainly have a core of overseas players they rely on.

Of the four eth-dog mentioned, only one is getting a regular game, that being Ben Cooper. RtD has just come back though.
 
I'd currently have Niall O'Brien ahead of Simi Singh, but I suspect Niall could also be on the way out in a couple of years time - he's 36 ATM.
I reckon Ed Joyce will try to hold on to play in our 1st ever test and hang the boots up not long after.
 
I'd currently have Niall O'Brien ahead of Simi Singh, but I suspect Niall could also be on the way out in a couple of years time - he's 36 ATM.
I reckon Ed Joyce will try to hold on to play in our 1st ever test and hang the boots up not long after.

Only reason I put Singh in was because NOB has been playing very poorly for a while now. But they'll probably give him a cap for services rendered.
 
Would they really play Balbirnie ahead of Niall O'Brien (who can keep too)? Would also have Murtagh batting at 8 given he averages 19 in FC cricket with the willow ahead of Dockrell's 15 and Rankin's 9

Balbirnie is one of their few batsmen, and he's under 30, which is also a bit of a rarity right now.

Murtagh is old and hasn't batted up the order for a while.
 
Balbirnie is one of their few batsmen, and he's under 30, which is also a bit of a rarity right now.

Murtagh is old and hasn't batted up the order for a while.
Just his FC record isn't too flattering when looking at it. If Morgan were to play for them in test cricket it would be a handy addition.
 
That's Irish batting for you. Even Morgan's first class record isn't earth-shattering. Makes you realise how incredible Joyce has been.
Just with associate and affiliate cricket I use 30 as a benchmark.

Joyce is a freaking gun. If Ireland were granted test status around 2010 (as they should have been) it would have been great for them. Would have developed cricket over there so much more. As it stands in a couple of years they'll have lost most of their good players, apart from Stirling, Dockrell, Rankin (even though he's 33) and Wilson.

Any young prospects coming through that may be able to sustain them at the top?
 
Just with associate and affiliate cricket I use 30 as a benchmark.

Joyce is a freaking gun. If Ireland were granted test status around 2010 (as they should have been) it would have been great for them. Would have developed cricket over there so much more. As it stands in a couple of years they'll have lost most of their good players, apart from Stirling, Dockrell, Rankin (even though he's 33) and Wilson.

Any young prospects coming through that may be able to sustain them at the top?

There's a couple of young batsmen who could be something, but they're not ready yet. Bowling should be fine, plenty to choose from.
 
There's a couple of young batsmen who could be something, but they're not ready yet. Bowling should be fine, plenty to choose from.
Yeah. Young, Chase and Sorenson are good seamer prospects and obviously Dockrell is a gun
 
Sorensen retired in July. Barry McCarthy and Perth's Jason Mulder are two more capped players to watch.
That's a blow. Is Mulder any chance of getting a gig for WA in the second half of the year?
 
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