The wicket-keeper batsmen Gary Wilson adviced his team to not get overawed by the occasion when they move on to the field at Lord’s to take on England.
Ireland will make their maiden test against the world cup champs on Wednesday and will last for four days.
Ireland has played two tests, against Pakistan and Afghanistan, in their maiden away test in Dehradun, but the test match at England will be a special one. Ireland has a remarkable journey towards cricket which made them get the test status in June 2017.
“In my generation, I don’t think any of us expected to be playing a Test match at Lord’s, so to have the opportunity is great,” – Wilson said.
“But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that we have to come here and perform as well. That’s what it is about: it’s not just turning up and having all the fanfare around Lord’s, we have to try and put in a good performance against a very good England side. But we’ve got some good players as well, and we’re confident we can do that.” – Wilson added.
🎥 ONE MINUTE WITH: We grab a minute with Ireland’s Head of Physiotherapy and Medical Services @glammyphysio about his role with the men’s squad and how he plans to keep the players cool during the predicted heatwave this week.#BackingGreen ☘️🏏 pic.twitter.com/mbL2m3s6Lv
— Cricket Ireland (@Irelandcricket) July 21, 2019
Ireland has started its training session for the One-off test match on Sunday, 21 July. The training session which was held at Lord’s made them get used of famous slope on the Lord’s pitch.
“Training today was good, it was the first time we’ve been here in a while. We had two good days at Merchant Taylor’s [School Ground, in a warm-up match], which was a good run out.” – Wilson said.
“A few guys had time in the middle, and for the bowlers, it was about getting some overs in the legs. But it’s nice to finally get here to Lord’s and get to know the conditions and facilities, and for those guys who haven’t played here before, they’ll find the slope fairly interesting.” – Wilson added.
Looking into their three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe in Bready, which Ireland drew 1-1, the team now has to go through a complete change in format.
“I’ve had a lot of time in county cricket going from format to format, and you just learn it is something you have to do,” he said.
“I guess there are enough miles in my legs now to know if you haven’t hit a red ball for a while, you don’t suddenly forget how to hit one. We’ve got a good opportunity now with three days’ practice, so it’s just about fine-tuning.” Wilson said.
