Ireland return to iconic Lord's to face England in one-off Test match

LONDON: England will welcome their neighbour Ireland in a one-off Test match at the iconic cricket venue, Lord's. The one-off Test match will held between June 1 and June 4. The English have been pinning down one team after another since appointing Ben Stokes as their Test captain and former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum as the Test team head coach.

With a win against Ireland, Stokes' side would be looking to send a warning shot to their next opponent Australia as they have their eyes on reclaiming the Ashes next month against the fierce rivals. England's immense success has been credited by fans to 'bazball'. The fancy title comes from England's head coach's name, McCullum.

The 'Bazball' approach has brought 10 wins from 12 Tests for the English team. The English team is coming from a win against Pakistan in their three-test series in December last year. The English team won the series by 3-0. On the other hand, Andrew Balbirnie and his team are looking to stop the English Juggernaut in front of the host's crowd. The Irish team will look to repeat their performance in their last outing against England back in 2019. Despite losing in their first appearance four years ago they were impressive in the first session. The Irish team bowled out England at 85 runs in the first innings.

Since their last loss, Ireland has gone through some significant changes with some of their experienced players retiring. Kevin O'Brien, former captain William Porterfield, wicket-keeper Gary Wilson, and experienced pacers Tim Murtagh and Boyd Rankin were all part of the previous Lord's Test.

The Irish team has played three additional Tests one against Bangladesh and two against Sri Lanka earlier this year. However, they are yet to register a win since becoming a Full Member of the ICC. The pitch at Lords' is known to support the fast bowlers as England's seamers will be looking forward to the prospect of bowling against the inexperienced Irish batting line-up. The toss also plays a vital role at the venue as the team winning the toss would have the chance to bowl first, taking full convenience of the early movement on offer for the fast bowlers.

England playing XI: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Josh Tongue, Jack Leach

Ireland Playing XI: Andrew Balbirnie (captain), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Matthew Foster, Fionn Hand, Graham Hume, Tom Mayes, Andrew McBrine, James McCollum, PJ Moor, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Craig Young.