BAN vs IRE: Barry McCarthy gets ruled out due to knee injury; Tom Mayes announced as replacement

Cricket Ireland has today confirmed a further late change to the previously announced squads for the tour to Bangladesh – the squad departs today for a seven-match, three format series of the Asian nation.

 The schedule will feature a warm-up fixture on 15 March, then three one-day internationals, three T20 Internationals and a Test Match. This will be the first-ever Test Match played between the two sides, and the first multi-format series the two sides have played at senior level.

 The squad changes are as follows:

• Bangladesh ODI squad: Tom Mayes replaces Barry McCarthy (injury)
• Bangladesh T20I squad: Tom Mayes replaces Barry McCarthy (injury)
• Bangladesh Test squad: Tom Mayes replaces Barry McCarthy (injury)

Following his call up, Tom Mayes, 21, who plays for North Down Cricket Club and featured for the Northern Knights in the Inter-Provincial Series in 2022, said:

“I’m just super grateful and honoured to be part of the tour and I’m really looking forward to joining the lads and getting stuck in.”

Born in South Africa, having played for Limpopo, Mayes is an Irish passport-holder who qualifies through his grandmother who was born-and-bred in Dublin. The tall right-arm seamer relocated to Ireland in 2021. He played twice for the Knights in the 50-over Cup competition in 2022 taking four wickets at 28.25 apiece and played six times in the T20 Trophy taking seven wickets at 22.71 apiece.

Speaking about Mayes’ call-up, Men’s National Selector, Andrew White, said:

“Tom has been on our radar as part of the fast bowling development talent pool in recent times – he is tall, hits a good length and has the attributes to progress through the system. In an ideal world, Tom would have likely been included in the Wolves programme first, but we are confident he can step up into the senior squad and will work closely with High Performance Pace Bowling coach Ryan Eagleson on his skills. Exposing young players to new conditions will only help in their development, so we wish him well on the tour.”

Speaking about McCarthy’s injury, Mark Rausa – Head of Physiotherapy and Medical Services – said:

“Barry had been flagging some low-level knee discomfort over the past few months that we have been managing accordingly. A scan in December did not pick up on any serious injury but in recent weeks he has been reporting that his knee pain was becoming more frequent and increasing in severity. A series of further investigations this week and consultation with a knee specialist has determined that Barry has small cartilage tear and a small area of stress response in the knee.

“We have decided to be cautious and withdraw Barry from our tour of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He will need a period of offload for the knee to settle down and in the meantime, we will also have the small cartilage tear tidied up in surgery next week.”

The Irish squad’s pace bowling stocks have been stretched with Josh Little (unavailable), Barry McCarthy, Craig Young and Matthew Foster (withdrawn due to injuries or still undergoing rehab), and Conor Olphert (educational commitments) all being unavailable to Heinrich Malan, while David Delany was contacted but could not commit to the Irish high performance programme beyond the immediate tour, so in the interests of longer-term talent pool development has been overlooked for now.

THE UPDATED SQUADS

Ireland squad for Bangladesh ODI series

• Andrew Balbirnie (Capt), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Stephen Doheny, Fionn Hand, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Tom Mayes, Andrew McBrine, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White.

Ireland squad for Bangladesh T20I series

• Andrew Balbirnie (Capt), Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Fionn Hand, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Tom Mayes, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young.

Ireland squad for Bangladesh Test Match

• Andrew Balbirnie (Capt), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Murray Commins, George Dockrell, Fionn Hand, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Tom Mayes, Andrew McBrine, James McCollum, PJ Moor, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White.

TOUR SCHEDULE - BANGLADESH

 Warm-up match

• 15 March: warm-up match – opponent to be announced.

ODI Series

• 18 March: Bangladesh Men v Ireland Men – 1^st ODI (SICS, Sylhet; start 2pm local time)
• 20 March: Bangladesh Men v Ireland Men – 2^nd ODI (SICS, Sylhet; start 2pm local time)
• 23 March: Bangladesh Men v Ireland Men – 3^rd ODI (SICS, Sylhet; start 2pm local time)

T20I Series

• 27 March: Bangladesh Men v Ireland Men – 1^st T20I (ZACS, Chattogram; start 2pm local time)
• 29 March: Bangladesh Men v Ireland Men – 2^nd T20I (ZACS, Chattogram; start 2pm local time)
• 31 March: Bangladesh Men v Ireland Men – 3^rd T20I (ZACS, Chattogram; start 2pm local time)

Test Match

• 4-8 April: Bangladesh Men v Ireland Men – Test Match (SBNCS, Dhaka; start 10am daily local time)

 Details of livestream/broadcast are being confirmed with the host Board shortly.