Ireland in Test Cricket

Origins and the road to Test status

Ireland were admitted to Test cricket in June 2017 and played their first match in May 2018, a five-wicket loss to Pakistan at The Village in Malahide. The buildup had been a six-year climb from the 2011 World Cup win over England to Full Member status, and the debut Test itself - Kevin O’Brien’s 118 after Ireland followed on, then the fourth-innings target chased by Pakistan - was closer than the result suggests.

The eight Tests

Ireland have played eight Tests in six years: one home Test in 2018, one against Afghanistan at Dehradun and one at Lord’s in 2019, one in Bangladesh, two in Sri Lanka and a second at Lord’s in 2023, and one in Abu Dhabi in 2024. Seven have been losses; the eighth was Ireland’s first win, a six-wicket chase over Afghanistan at the Tolerance Oval in February 2024, six years after the debut. Mark Adair took 5-39 and 3-56 in the match; Andy Balbirnie made 58 not out in the fourth innings.

Signature players

Andy Balbirnie - 8 Tests, 378 runs at 25.20. Captained the side to the first Test win in 2024 and made 58 not out in that fourth-innings chase.

Andy McBrine - 7 Tests, 14 wickets at 60.07. The workhorse off-spinner of the modern Test side; his 6-118 against Bangladesh at Dhaka in 2023 is still Ireland’s best innings return.

Home and away

Up to March 2024 Ireland had played 1 Test at home (Malahide 2018) and 7 away. Apart from the two Tests at Lord’s, every match away has been on the subcontinent or in the UAE, which has been Ireland’s adopted neutral home for tours it hosts on schedule but cannot afford to stage at home. The one home Test in 2025 was the first genuine Test-week fixture Ireland has hosted; the away schedule is otherwise a shorter version of Bangladesh’s two decades earlier.

Rivalries

Afghanistan at 2 Tests (1 win, 1 loss) is the only fixture where the head-to-head is level. Sri Lanka at 2 Tests and England at 2 Tests are Ireland’s repeat losses to full-tier sides, alongside single defeats by Pakistan and Bangladesh, though the Lord’s 2019 Test collapsed both ways in the same match and was closer than any of the innings-scale losses in the record.

What CricArcade shows

The Follow-On lets you pick an Ireland XI from the modern squad - Balbirnie in the middle order, McBrine leading the spin, Mark Adair leading the seam attack - and play a five-day Test at any of the venues that appear here. The engine reads real careers rather than a single rating, so McBrine bowls the length he actually bowls, Balbirnie anchors the way he does, and a home Test at Malahide plays differently from an away one at Galle. The results in this piece are the real ones; the game is the choice of which of them to try to repeat.