Ireland Women to host Australia for three-match ODI series in July

DUBLIN: Ireland women will face Australia in an ODI series on home turf for the first time since 2005, as well as tour the West Indies and the Netherlands for white-ball series, Cricket Ireland announced on Thursday.

Ireland will have the chance to acquire crucial experience playing against top-line opposition over a busy summer calendar, with the defending ICC Women's Cricket World Cup champions certain to present the toughest test.

Australia Women will tour Ireland for an ODI series for the first time since 2005 when the teams meet in three matches in Clontarf in July as part of the ICC Women's Championship. Australia is the top-ranked women's ODI squad and has won 43 of their last 45 games in the format, including an unbeaten tournament run to claim the Women's Cricket World Cup title in 2022.

Ireland women upset Australia with a three-wicket victory in a pre-ICC Women's T20 World Cup matchup earlier this year, demonstrating that they can compete with the best. Even so, Australia went on to win the trophy soon after.

Earlier in the summer, Ireland women will face West Indies for a three-match one-day international series, followed by a three-match T20 international series. The ODIs are also part of the ICC Women's Championship. The tour will be from 26 June to 9 July, with Cricket West Indies shortly set to announce the venue. To round out a busy summer for the squad, Ireland Women will travel to the Netherlands in August for a three-match T20I series at VRA Amstelveen.

"It can't be under-estimated how important participation in the ICC Women's Championship has been for Ireland - both in attracting top sides to Ireland and playing away in some great, but challenging venues. The experience that our Ireland Women's squad is gaining is invaluable to their development.

Combined with their participation in the recently completed T20 World Cup, 2023 is a big year for the squad and they have already demonstrated their potential over the last six months or more," Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, said in an official statement released by Ireland Cricket.

"We recently showed in the warm-up win over Australia at the past T20 World Cup, and the nail-biting Group Stage match against the West Indies, that we can compete with the best - the two upcoming series' will obviously be a different challenge, but the squad will be well prepared by [head coach] Ed Joyce," he added.

"We are aware, however, that the players will better develop by playing more fixtures - and to this end, it was unfortunate that a planned multi-format series against Thailand scheduled for June have fallen through as a result of a clash with the Asia Cup," Deutrom said.