Both Ireland & Afghanistan are scheduled to play a combined total of 29 Tests in the next cycle of the Future Tours Programme (2019-23).
Ireland will play 16 Tests while Afghanistan are scheduled to play 13, in a proposed calendar, which is due to get a final approval at the ICC annual conference in June 2018. The contrasting point being that both the countries are not part of the 9-team Test Championship to be held by ICC.
Ireland are scheduled to play a one-off Test against Australia (2019), Sri Lanka (2020), England (2021) and then host New Zealand and South Africa in 2022. In addition, Ireland will face Afghanistan (5 Tests), Zimbabwe (4 Tests) and Bangladesh (2 Tests).
Both Afghanistan and Zimbabwe will play nearly equal number of Tests at home and away. Ireland will play seven home Tests and nine away while Afghanistan seven at home and six away. UAE is currently the home base for Afghanistan and their home series will most likely take place in the desert country.
Australia are the only top ranked country to have tests scheduled against Afghanistan in the new FTP cycle. Both countries will play a one-off Test in 2020 and 2022 after Afghanistan secured their debut test in 2018 against India, which thwarted the originally planned test between the two nations in 2018/2019. Afghanistan’s other opponents will be arch-rivals Ireland (5 Tests), Zimbabwe (4 Tests), Bangladesh (1 Test) and West Indies (1 Test).
