 Ireland will host England in a one-off ODI that will be played on August
25 at Dublin. The ODI follows England's highly successful Test series against
India and will be followed by the ODIs and T20I against India. In essence, this
is a chance for the English side to try out different players before the series
against India begins in order to give the selectors more options to choose from.
Of course, the Irish team will not like the fact that England has sent across
a team which isn't their best and would love to get into them. They had beaten
England in the World Cup 2011, thanks to a freak innings by Kevin O'Brien, who
smashed a century of quickfire proportions.
Click for Live Score Card of Ireland Vs England
The Irish side will look to repeat that performance, but for that, they will need
to get going with the bats on pitches that will be more difficult to bat on than
the ones in India where the side had been able to get going.
England's side has many changes, bringing in the players from England Lions
to get going in the ODIs in place of some of the regulars. The biggest change
is that their regular Alastair Cook, has been given a break and his place
will be taken by Eoin Morgan to lead the side, while there are call-ups
to the likes of Leicestershire's James Taylor, Yorkshire's Jonathan Bairstow
and Durham's Ben Stokes and Scott Borthwick.
The good news for the English side is that their best player in recent times,
Jonathon Trott has also recovered from his injury and will be fit to
play in this game. Ravi Bopara will be a part of the squad and should make it
to the playing eleven, while the rest of the side reads like this:
Eoin Morgan (c), Ravi Bopara, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Graham Onions,
Jonathan Trott, Chris Woakes, Samit Patel, Jonathan Bairstow, Scott Borthwick,
Craig Kieswetter, Ben Stokes, James Taylor
Ireland will be led by William Porterfield, while some of the others
to look out for will be Niall O'Brien and George Dockrell, the 19-year old left-arm
spinner who impressed everyone with his subtle changes of pace, line and length
against India in the World Cup.
England should be the favourites to win the game but trust Ireland to go strong
at them.
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