Cricket Ireland have announced that the Men’s national squad will be travelling to UAE in January 2021 to play separate ODI series against the host’s and Afghanistan. While the three matches against Afghanistan will be part of the World Cup Super League (WCSL), UAE will also get the opportunity to play four matches against Ireland prior to that.
The four ODI matches between Ireland and UAE are scheduled for 8th, 10th 12th and 14th of January 2021, while Ireland and Afghanistan will play each other on the 18th, 21st and 23rd. The matches will be the first Internationals for Ireland after their ODI series against England in August 2020. All the matches will be played at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi (UAE) and will be live streamed by ITW Consulting.
“It goes without saying that 2020 has been a difficult year, but the lads have acquitted themselves well and can be proud of what they have managed to achieve.” said Ireland Head Coach Graham Ford on Cricket Ireland website.
“We’ve beaten the T20 World Champions, the West Indies, in a T20I in the Caribbean, beaten Afghanistan for the first time in a T20I in the subcontinent, and beaten the current World Cup champions England in their own backyard – those wins have helped build self-belief within the players and have demonstrated the progress we are making as a squad.”
The ODI series between Ireland and UAE will have a global broadcast coverage with transmission in UK/Ireland region (Premier Sports channel across SKY, Virgin, Freeview and BT), India (Eurosports), UAE (Etisalat) and USA/Canada (WillowTV). Matches will also be live streamed on YouTube, and the links will be updated on social media platforms prior to start of the games.
Ireland Squad – Tour of UAE
Andrew Balbirnie (Captain), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, David Delany, Gareth Delany, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, James McCollum, Kevin O’Brien, Neil Rock, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker and Craig Young
Ireland tour of UAE Fixtures (Local Timings)
08th Jan 2021: Ireland vs UAE (Scorecard)
18th Jan 2021: Ireland vs UAE (Scorecard)
Several players and support staff, who are not on the tour, will remain at home under Covid-19 safe conditions in case a substitute needs to be flown out to Abu Dhabi during the duration of the tour. This will be the first meeting between UAE and Ireland after their game during the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup qualifiers in October/November in UAE.
For UAE, it will be the right time to try out new faces in the senior squad, who impress during the currently underway domestic T20 competition, before their postponed series in CWC League 2 takes place in 2021 (home and abroad).
Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) have also announced their 16-member squad for the 3-match series, which will be part of the CWC ODI Super League. While Ireland have already played 3 matches in the Super League on their tour of England in 2020, this will be Afghanistan’s first matches in the competition.
Afghanistan Squad
Asghar Afghan (Captain), Javed Ahmadi, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Sayed Shirzad, Naveen ul Haq, Najibullah Zadran, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Rahmat Shah, Rahmatullah Shahidi, Yamin Ahmadzai, Usman Ghani, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sharafuddin Ashraf and Gulbadin Naib
