The newest entrants to Test Cricket, Ireland and Afghanistan are going to play each other in a full series that will be played in India. Both Ireland and Afghanistan earned their status as Full Members of the International Cricket Council in June 2017, and have played just their single maiden Test match since then. The series will take place during the course of February and March this year.
Ireland face an uphill task of playing Afghanistan in subcontinent conditions, and with senior players like Ed Joyce, Niall O’Brien and John Anderson having retired last year, the challenge might prove to be even more difficult.
However, it will be a learning curve for the younger Irish players in the side like Harry Tector and James McCollum, who have never played on Indian pitches. The Test match will be a significant event for the Ireland cricket team, as they have already missed out on qualifying for the ICC World Cup this year in England and Wales.
The series begins on the 23rd of February and will conclude on the 21st of March or earlier with the final test being played from 17th March.
Afghanistan toured Ireland in August last year and the two teams played in three T20Is and three ODIs. Afghanistan emerged victorious over their hosts in both the T20 series (2-0) and the ODI series (2-1).
Matches
The series will comprise of three Twenty20 Internationals, five One Day Internationals and a singular Test match. They are going to played in the very order that have been mentioned in.
The T20s will be played from 07:00 PM (01:30 PM GMT) while the ODIs will be played from 02:00 PM (08:30 AM GMT), according to the Indian Standard Time. The singular Test match will be played from 09:30 AM (04:00 AM GMT).
Venue
All of the matches in the series will be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The cricket ground was established in December of 2016 and has a capacity of 25,000. It acts as the home ground of the Afghanistan Cricket team, who do not play their home matches in Afghanistan due to their ongoing security situation and lack of international standard facilities.
