A very busy mid-year period for the West Indies men’s team commences at the Clontarf Cricket Club in Dublin with the first of what will be 12 limited overs matches against either Ireland or England across a 26-day period, before they quickly head home for three Tests and another 11 white ball games against Australia and Pakistan!
Worlds away from The Oval in London where they’ll soon be taking on England in an ODI, the Clontarf Cricket Club has no permanent infrastructure for international cricket yet will have a very welcoming atmosphere with marquees for media and supporters alike for three 50-over matches before the Windies tour England and then finish things off with three T20Is at sleepy ol’ Bready in Tyrone Co, Northern Ireland.
The West Indies have finally settled their leadership group after appointing Roston Chase as Test captain to accompany Shai Hope in his white ball role and Hope leads a group that will be missing the trio of Sherfane Rutherford, Shimron Hetmyer Romario Shepherd, who were permitted to return to the IPL for its completion.
Ireland are match-fit in all formats after touring Zimbabwe in February and playing their domestic 50-over tournament earlier this month but are almost certain to hand out some ODI debuts, naming four uncapped players in their 14-man squad with Mark Adair, Craig Young and Curtis Campher injured, whilst Graham Hume, Gavin Hoey and Morgan Topping were omitted.
Why Ireland can win
The three new faces who could be introduced into the Irish ODI setup as soon as this match are all thoroughly deserving of their callups. Cade Carmichael is the leading run-scorer of Ireland’s ongoing provincial List A tournament with scores of 86, 107 and 65 from three innings for Northern Knights, whilst Thomas Mayes and Liam McCarthy both picked up two three-wicket hauls each in that tournament.
Prior to that, Mayes was the joint-second leading wicket-taker in an A-team tri-series against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka with ten at an average of 14.50 (McCarthy himself took seven at 25.85), dismissing internationally experienced batters such as Sadeera Samarawickrama, Nuwanidu Fernando and Ikram Alikhil.
West Indies head coach Daren Sammy expects “conditions to be challenging” for the visitors and the Irish will be doing all they can to take advantage of their familiarity with playing in Dublin, where they defeated Pakistan in a home T20I 12 months ago and were super competitive in three ODI losses to New Zealand back in 2022.
There is a wealth of experience in the Irish squad that should help them overcome the fact they haven’t played an ODI on home soil for three years due to financial constraints, with their squad including six players in their thirties as well as Lorcan Tucker and Harry Tector, both of whom have played loads of international cricket.
Why West Indies can win
The West Indies are also facing the prospect of losing back-to-back ODI series to Ireland after falling 2-1 to the Irish at Sabina Park in January 2022, but since they failed to qualify for the 2023 ODI World Cup there has been a greater focus on getting themselves back up to scratch in this format.
The days of wrangling with players over central contracts and franchise deals are behind them and Cricket West Indies are now a lot more flexible when it comes to allowing their players to skip national duty for lucrative T20 deals, as long as the loyalty is repaid of course.
After defeating both England (2-1) and Bangladesh (3-0) in home series late last year, the Windies are now in ninth on the ICC ODI rankings but just one point behind eighth-placed England, which makes this tour of the UK and Ireland especially crucial as the top-eight ranked teams will qualify for the 2027 ODI World Cup automatically.
Shai Hope and Roston Chase will be expected to lead the way not only as the two leaders of the squad but also as the two members to have previously played ODI cricket in Ireland, with Hope piling on 470 runs in just five innings during a tri-series against the Irish and Bangladesh in Dublin six years ago.
Venue and conditions
An unseasonably warm May afternoon will open the series at the Clontarf Cricket Club, with temperatures possibly even exceeding 20 degrees and only a very low chance of rain.
Castle Avenue hasn’t hosted ODIs since that aforementioned 2019 tri-series which was spread across the Clontarf and Malahide CCs, and that produced five scores of more than 260 runs in its three games.
The West Indies have played the most ODIs there of any visiting nation, winning four of five completed matches.
More recently, Castle Avenue hosted Ireland’s three-T20I series against Pakistan in May 2024 where 178 was the lowest score of the entire series, so high scores can be anticipated.
Player stats
• Keacy Carty and Sherfane Rutherford top-scored three times each for the West Indies in 2024 ODIs
• Lorcan Tucker scored two T20I half-centuries against Pakistan at Castle Avenue
• Shai Hope scored 50+ runs in nine of his 20 ODI innings in Ireland & UK
• Andy Balbirnie scored 60+ runs in each of his last four innings for Ireland or North-West Warriors
• Alzarri Joseph took exactly two wickets in seven of his nine ODIs in 2024 but no more than two