Ireland to play their first Test against Bangladesh in April; white-ball tour to commence in March

The Ireland senior men's team will play its first-ever Test match against Bangladesh during their forthcoming tour of the Asian country in March and April. The Ireland tour of Bangladesh will include three ODIs and as many T20Is in addition to the one-off Test match. It will be their first tour of Bangladesh since 2008.

The Irish team is slated to arrive in Bangladesh on March 12 and will play a practice game first up. The visitors will then square off against the Bangla Tigers in the ODI series. All three ODI games will be played in Sylhet on March 18, 20, and 23.

The white-ball leg of the tour will then move to Chattogram for three T20Is scheduled to be played on March 27, 29, and 31. The one-off Test match will be played between April 4 and 8 in Dhaka.

Ireland have only participated in three Tests thus far and haven't featured in the format since 2019. Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland said that the team is really looking forward to the challenge of playing Test cricket in Asian conditions.

"We are delighted to confirm Ireland men's seven-match, multi-format tour of Bangladesh - and thank the BCB for their cooperation and support in agreeing this month-long tour," Deutrom said.

"Since the two sides first met in 1997, there has been a great on-field rivalry formed and we look forward to what looks set to be another competitive series.

Of particular interest to players and fans alike will no doubt be the last fixture on the schedule - the match marks Ireland's return to playing Test cricket. It will undoubtedly be a challenging experience in Asian conditions for our squad, but it will be invaluable to our players' development knowing that we will be playing a great deal of cricket in Asia over coming years."

BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that there are cordial relations between both the boards and despite the challenges of a hectic cricketing calendar the two governing bodies have managed to make the tour possible.

"Ireland's visit to Bangladesh is another exciting event in our home season after the series against India and England," Chowdhury said. "The BCB and Cricket Ireland have a cordial and strong relationship and the two boards have worked very closely to arrange this bilateral tour despite the challenges of a busy international calendar. This is also a statement of the BCB's commitment to the ICC FTP."

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store.