Andrew Balbirnie to skipper the Ireland Wolves Squad for the tour of Bangladesh

The three-week tour of the Ireland Wolves to Bangladesh will see the all-rounder Andrew Balbirnie skipper the side instead of the regular William Porterfield. The Ireland Wolves will be playing the four-day match against Bangladesh ‘A’ followed by five One-Day games against the same opposition.

Under the tutelage of Andrew Balbirnie, there will be 16 players representing the Wolves side with George Dockrell, Peter Chase and Barry McCarthy among the Ireland regulars in the squad. There will, however, be three uncapped players who would be representing the squad. The trio of Jack Tector, Shane Getkate and Nathan Smith are the uncapped players in the squad.

Graham Ford will replace Bracewell in December: 

John Bracewell would take his place as the head coach of the team, with Ed Joyce joining as a support staff for the Irish side. Bracewell would be replaced by the former Sri Lankan coach Graham Ford after the latter did not extend his contract with the Sri Lankan national side. Ford would be joining the squad in December.

The Bangladesh tour would be of tremendous help for the Irish side, to get used to the conditions in the sub-continent before next year’s World Cup qualifying tournament.

“We want to give Graham Ford, William Porterfield and the team the best possible opportunity to qualify and therefore have selected on the basis that all players in the squad have a realistic chance of making the Irish side in the immediate future,” said Bracewell.

“While 13 of the 16 players have senior international experience, a number of those players don’t always feature in our first XI which makes A-team cricket so important for developing experience in our broader playing pool, let alone in unfamiliar conditions.” added Bracewell.

A tour of utmost importance:

Balbirnie would be returning to familiar position, after skippering the Wolves side at the beginning of the year. The Irish player added that it would be a ‘huge honour’ for him to skipper the side in Bangladesh.

“Playing against high quality opposition such as Bangladesh A in conditions which are alien to us will certainly do that.” concluded the skipper.

Ireland Wolves squad: Andrew Balbirnie (capt), John Anderson, Peter Chase, George Dockrell, Shane Getkate, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Jacob Mulder, Stuart Poynter, James Shannon, Simi Singh, Nathan Smith, Jack Tector, Sean Terry, Stuart Thompson, Lorcan Tucker