Momentous Test must be approached with dose of realism

IRELAND’S first Test cricket match, which begins against Pakistan today, is a cause for celebration, but expectations should be tempered. History and logic are stacked against the Boys in Green (who will, of course, be wearing white, as all teams do in Test cricket).

Stepping up to Test cricket – a status Ireland effectively earned through being the ‘best of the rest’ for more than a decade, plus a handful of high-profile World Cup scalps – is a daunting task.

For a comparison imagine, say, Belgium’s rugby team being thrown into the Six Nations.

Bangladesh, the last nation to be admitted to the exclusive club before Ireland and Afghanistan were let in last year, took 35 matches to record their first victory.

And Bangladesh is a cricket-mad nation of 160 million people.

New Zealand’s wait was even longer: 45 games, stretched over 26 years. It took India 24 games to win, Sri Lanka 13.

Bookies are offering 12/1 on an Ireland victory. That’s 12/1 in a two-horse race, when they are playing at home, in a sport where home advantage is a particularly big deal.

And Ireland are facing a team missing perhaps their best player (Yasir Shah); this is considered the most workaday Pakistan team in several generations, following the retirements of a host of greats over the last decade or so.

Put simply, though, Pakistan (a country of nearly 200 million, where nearly every sporty kid wants to be a cricketer) still have far better players than Ireland, and they have far more experience of Test cricket – the Ireland squad have one Test cap between them, Boyd Rankin’s inglorious appearance for England in the

2013-’14 Ashes.

The home players will be stepping up from English County Championship Second Division cricket or a lone interpro game to a situation they have never encountered before, with unrelenting international quality in the visitors’ bowling and batting.

Of the Ireland side, only Rankin, Ed Joyce, Tim Murtagh and maybe Niall O’Brien (below) have career stats in four-day cricket that would put them in serious consideration for a call-up by any other Test side, and all four are in the twilight of their careers.

Optimists will point to Ireland’s famous victory over Pakistan in the

2007 World Cup, or the tie at Clontarf in 2013. But those were one-day internationals. In limited-overs cricket, Ireland can beat the big boys if several of their players play out of their skin, they get a bit of luck and the opposition have an off day.

And even then, taking Bangladesh and Afghanistan out of the equation, Ireland have never beaten a major nation at home since they gained official ODI status in 2006. The last time today’s sides met, Pakistan won by

255 runs; that’s the equivalent of about 15-0 in soccer.

Most of the Ireland players have been waiting for more than a decade to prove themselves on this stage, and for many, this could be their only chance.

But the likelihood is that for this Ireland side – all but one born on this island, with not a ‘project player’ in sight – that has dragged cricket into the public consciousness, there will be no glorious victory – just the cold, hard reality of Test cricket.