Rankin and Co arrive at Lord’s ready to bloody a few noses
Much at stake for players on both sides in the one-off Test which starts tomorrow
THE simplistic view would be to see the four-day Test against Ireland as the calm between two storms for England this summer. The World Cup finished — and in some style, you may remember — nine days ago. The Ashes begin in nine days’ time.
But there is too much at stake for that. This is an historic, hard-earned event for Irish cricket. England know all about Ireland, and the perils of underestimating them.
Indeed, they nearly started their summer with an ODI defeat to Ireland, who are desperate for their first Test win.
Do not expect Ireland to come quietly to Lord’s; they will bring scores of fans to a ground Tim Murtagh and Paul Stirling call home, while Andy Balbirnie used to play for Middlesex, too. Murtagh has 291 of his 800 first-class wickets at Lord’s, and Karl McDermott, the new Irish groundsman, looks likely to give him a pitch with a pleasingly green tinge.
Boyd Rankin will not mind bloodying a few English noses after his only Test for them, at Sydney in 2014, went awry.
Rankin is one of five players still around from Ireland’s victor y over England at the 2011 World Cup — another is Kev i n O ’ B r i e n , who scored a wonderful 113.
Lord’s will feel very different from the atmosphere at t h e Wo r l d C u p
Final as England return to action in a week when Test cricket changes. This match is the first with players wearing names and numbers on their shirts, England’s first against Ireland and the first scheduled over four days in England since 1947. Next week, the World Test Championship begins.
England cannot afford for this to be a mere Ashes tune up, with many of their X-factor players resting or injured after the World Cup.
With James Anderson out with a calf injury, England have ended up with an oddly-balanced squad of 12, including four specialist batsmen, five all-rounders and four players with more than 55 caps, but seven still in single figures. Only Chris Woakes (26) sits in the middle. There are three uncapped players, and three more who have not played a Test at home.
With Anderson out, Mark Wood injured and Jofra Archer somewhere between an injury and a rest (that somewhere, literally, is partying at a festival in Barbados), there is pressure on Stuart Broad to justify his Ashes place.
If a bowler feared roundly by Australians with 437 Test wickets — 83 of them on this ground, second only to Anderson — justifying his place sounds remarkable, it is a measure of England’s seam strength.
Woakes (left) had a fine World Cup, and the Ashes start at Edgbaston, his home ground, and Lord’s, where he averages 130 with the bat and 10 with the ball. Sam Curran is taking his first-class wickets at 22 this summer. He claimed six against the Australians last week, was man of the series against India last summer, and offers lefta r m va r i e t y. Jo e Ro o t wants to blood Archer in Test match cricket as
soon as possible,