Largest-Ever Summer Of International Cricket Is Coming To Ireland

Ireland will be hosting white-ball series against a number of teams this year in home summer. Top competitors India, New Zealand and South Africa will tour Ireland for limited-overs cricket.

Also, Afghanistan will be travelling to Ireland, they both have played with each other on regular instances. However, their wait for a Test match will now last three years due to the cancellation of their visit to Zimbabwe.

On Tuesday, Cricket Ireland (CI) released an almost complete fixture list for the men’s international season, with the dates and venues for the Afghanistan series remaining to be confirmed.

The summer series will be starting on June 26th, in Malahide, for a two-month period. Thirteen of the matches will be played at international sites around Ireland. And the men’s series versus South Africa will take place at The Bristol County Ground in Bristol.

The calendar represents “a record quantity of men’s cricket” for Ireland in a single summer, according to CI chief executive Warren Deutrom, with three ODIs and 12 T20Is scheduled.

Ireland will also have home matches in England for the first time when they play South Africa in a two-match T20I series in Bristol on August 3 and 5.

CI had earlier intended to hold games against Bangladesh on English soil in the 2020 season in order to ensure that new pitches could be utilised at their important international sites. However, the fixtures were cancelled because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

India are the summer’s first visitors, playing two Twenty20 Internationals at Malahide on June 26 and 28. After that, India will tour to England, which begins with last summer’s delayed fifth Test at Edgbaston on July 1. India recently visited Ireland in 2018, where they won a two-match T20I series 2-0.

Ireland Men v India Men T20I series

• Sunday 26 June: Ireland v India, 1st T20I (Malahide) 
• Tuesday 28 June: Ireland v India, 2nd T20I (Malahide) 

Ireland Men v New Zealand Men series

• Sunday 10 July: Ireland v New Zealand, 1st ODI (Malahide)
• Tuesday 12 July: Ireland v New Zealand, 2nd ODI (Malahide)
• Friday 15 July: Ireland v New Zealand, 3rd ODI (Malahide)
• Monday 18 July: Ireland v New Zealand, 1st T20I (Stormont)
• Wednesday 20 July: Ireland v New Zealand, 2nd T20I (Stormont)
• Friday 22 July: Ireland v New Zealand, 3rd T20I (Stormont)

Ireland Men v South Africa Men T20I series

• Wednesday 3 August: Ireland v South Africa, 1st T20I (Bristol)
• Friday 5 August: Ireland v South Africa, 2nd T20I (Bristol)