Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie says beating England at Lord’s would be his team’s “best achievement in cricket” as he stressed they see the game as a “pinnacle event”.
Cricket Ireland’s high performance director Richard Holdsworth said last week the one-off Test was a “special occasion but not a “pinnacle event” for his side with the priority June and July’s World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe.
Balbirnie told reporters: “If we were to beat England in the Test that would be easily our best achievement in cricket, in the game. It’s the hardest format against one of traditionally the best teams in the world at their home ground.
“As a Test team, this is our pinnacle event, there’s no doubt about that, a Test match at Lord’s. I’m very fortunate that this is going to be my second Test at Lord’s and that’s an amazing thing for an Irish cricketer to say that they’ve achieved.”
Ireland have found success in the shorter formats against England, with a win at last year’s T20 World Cup and a historic 50-over victory in 2011, but their one and only Test match against their hosts ended in a 143-run defeat, in 2019.
Since gaining Test status in 2017 Ireland have lost all six of the matches.
Balbirnie added: “We’ve played England in T20 cricket, we know how good they are in white ball and we found a way to beat them in those formats. I think we’ve got to just react on the spot.
“That might sound a bit loose and a bit hard, but the way they play it’s going to be probably a million miles an hour, something that we haven’t come up against.
“We’re very young in our Test career and we’ve just come back from three Tests in the subcontinent [against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh], which was challenging in it’s own right.
“Coming to Lord’s, on the eve of The Ashes, with an England team that are playing an amazing brand of Test cricket – it’s going to be incredibly challenging.
“But the beauty of it is it’s a one off Test, so we can just go ahead and express ourselves and hopefully entertain people.”
Ireland have again defended the absence of key seamer Josh Little for the Lord’s Test against England.
Little, who recently played in the IPL for Gujarat Titans before featuring in a white-ball series against Bangladesh, requested a break following his busy limited-overs schedule.
Balbirnie said: “[Little is] a brilliant bowler in the white ball and we’ve seen that on the biggest stage. He’s yet to play a Test match and hasn’t a huge amount of first-class experience under his belt, but we know he’s pretty adaptable and he’s had a hectic schedule. Of course, we would have loved him here, but understand completely that he’s got to focus on resting up and getting ready for our World Cup qualifier.”
England XI to face Ireland at Lord’s: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Josh Tongue, Jack Leach.
Watch England’s Test summer live on Sky Sports Cricket. The four-day fixture against Ireland takes place at Lord’s from Thursday with the Ashes series under way at Edgbaston from June 16.
