Indian team to tour Ireland for two matches in 2018

What's the story?

Ahead of their tour of England in July 2018, the Virat Kohli-led Indian team will be travelling to Ireland to take on the Irishmen in two matches.

The schedule is yet to be decided but BCCI wants one ODI and one T20 while the hosts want to have back-to-back T20s on consecutive days.

In case you didn't know...

Yesterday, BCCI announced Indian team's Future Tours Programme (FTP) from 2019 till 2023 and according to that, the Men in Blue will play a total of 158 international matches (37 Tests, 67 ODIs and 54 T20Is).

During the meeting, the board also confirmed that India will tour Ireland just before their tour of England next year. The schedule has been approved by the Indian cricket team and was discussed at the ICC Chief Executives' meeting in Singapore

Details

India toured Ireland way back in 2007 and played an one-off ODI in which the visitors came out victorious by nine wickets. Both these teams have met each other just thrice in ODIs (once each in 2011 World Cup and 2015 World Cup) and India have got the better of Ireland on all three occasions.

What's next?

India, who are currently playing a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka at home, will play in a three-match T20I series before they fly to South Africa to take part in three Tests, six ODIs and three T20Is.

Following the tour of South Africa, India are set to play Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in a tri-series before the players will take part in the IPL and travel to England, Australia and New Zealand in the next nine months.

Author's take

India travelling and playing a couple of matches in Ireland is a win-win situation for both the teams as India will gain some knowledge about the conditions in that part of the world and get used to it ahead of the England series while Ireland will be benefitted by the presence of India cricketers as it will help the sport grow in the European country.