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Ireland Wolves will open up their tour to Bangladesh tomorrow with a first class match against Bangladesh A in Sylhet.
Andrew Balbirnie will captain the side for the four-day game, which gets underway at 9.30am local time (4.30am in Ireland), with John Anderson and Peter Chase the only other players in the squad of 16 to have playing in both of Ireland’s senior four day games in 2017.

The Wolves travelled to Bangladesh over the weekend and have had two full sessions in Sylhet, with a final preparation session today before getting underway. The side will then move on to Cox’s Bazar on the far southern coast of Bangladesh for a five-match one day series.

“We’ve had three good days of prep here and have acclimatised to conditions, hopefully we can now start well on what is a long and important tour” said Balbirnie ahead of the game.

Getting ready for the opening game of the tour has not been the easiest, with just three days of training after arriving in Sylhet, although the seam bowling group were sent to Dhaka two days early to make sure they had some extra time to prepare and have a chance to be ready for the first game.

Bangladesh have named a strong squad for the series, which will be captained by Nazmul Hossain Shanto, who was one of the key batters for Bangladesh in the 2016 Under 19 World Cup, although the members of Ireland’s squad who were at that World Cup did not get a chance to play against him.

There will be at least one familiar face in the Bangladesh squad, with Sunzamul Islam also in the squad. He made his ODI debut against Ireland earlier in 2017, taking 2-22 in his five overs as Ireland were bowled out for 180.

There is no doubting the four day game in particular will be difficult for the Wolves, but it provides a great learning opportunity for the squad.

“I’m looking forward to a challenging four days in testing conditions” said Balbirnie when talking about this week’s game. “It will be exciting to see how we will react and adapt against a strong Bangladesh A team.”

While the match will not be broadcast live, Cricket Ireland will provide some live updates on their twitter feed (@irelandcricket) and through the website, as well as a report (and hopefully some highlights) at the end of play each day.


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