Afghanistan v Ireland: Sides meet again after Irish Test triumph celebrations

Ireland coach Heinrich Malan said his side celebrated the country’s first men’s Test win but insists the players are now focused on the white-ball series with Afghanistan.

But the sides meet again in the opening one-day contest in Sharjah on Thursday.

“I don’t think they were asking for permission [to celebrate] to be honest,” said Malan on Tuesday.

“It was a great evening. We’ve always spoken about when we play well there’s a time and a place for celebration.

“To get across the line for our first ever Test win, there were obviously a couple of brews that went down.

“But we understand we’ve got a big one-day series here as well, followed by the three T20 games leading into the [Twenty20] World Cup.

“The boys were out there today getting back into the rhythm of things to prepare accordingly.”

The unusual sight of rain in Sharjah on Tuesday gave Malan and his players something more to think about as they were unable to train at the match venue, instead having to work out at the nearby ICC Academy.

“Everyone is ready to go. The rain today has delayed getting back out there and bowling but you can’t control the weather,” added the Ireland coach.

Ireland’s one-day side has had a consistent look in recent times, with Malan opting for five bowlers and all-rounders Curtis Campher and Mark Adair batting at numbers three and seven.

“We’re quite comfortable with our make-up at the minute.

“That doesn’t mean it can’t change tomorrow. That’s the fun part of trying to read conditions and making sure that we get that right.”

But while Ireland are facing one-day contests on Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday before the three-match T20 series begins in Sharjah on 15 March, inevitably much of Malan’s news briefing reflected on Friday’s momentous Test win, which came at the eighth attempt for the country’s men.

“Once we got our phones back, people were just highlighting the amount of text messages of support and congratulations they received from around the world from past players and past coaches.

“It’s not necessarily going to [fully] hit these lads at the minute because we’re on tour, we’re not with our loved ones, the people we spend most time with away from cricket.

“But it was obviously a fantastic occasion. There was a lot of talk about how long it would take or when it would happen.

“To get across the line was fantastic but that will probably be celebrated more away from this tour when we are with the [former] players who put us in position to play Test cricket. Those that did all the hard work and the administrators too.”

Malan’s selection call pays off

Malan’s own decision to select three front-line seamers in Barry McCarthy, Craig Young and Mark Adair proved a masterstroke as they took 17 of the Afghanistan wickets, with the latter producing superb figures of 5-39 in the first innings of the Abu Dhabi contest.

“Being out here for six or seven days [beforehand], we saw the ball go around a bit in the morning and we knew if we lost the toss and had to bowl first we could actually use that to our advantage, with three quality seamers and Curtis there in the background as well.

“It worked out beautifully for us.”

Ireland’s one-day team is not dramatically different from last week with the inclusions of Gareth Delany and Neil Rock in place of Peter Moor and James McCollum the only changes in the 15, with Josh Little not involved in this tour until the T20 matches.

George Dockrell, who didn’t make the Test side, looks a good bet to come into the starting 11 after being a regular in the ODI side in recent times, which included impressing in both white-ball series wins in Zimbabwe just before Christmas.

Ireland’s ODI squad

Mark Adair, Andrew Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Matthew Foster, Graham Hume, Andy McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Neil Rock, Paul Stirling (capt), Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Theo van Woerkom, Craig Young