This has already been a big year for Irish Test cricket: having qualified to compete in the format by becoming full members of the International Cricket Council in June 2017 they played five Tests in the following five-and-a-half years, but this week on Thursday at Lord’s they will play their fourth since the start of April.
Their game against Bangladesh that month started 1,348 days after the end of their previous Test, also at Lord’s (in that time England played 49 Tests, India 36 and Australia 33). Before this year no Irishman had scored a Test century since Kevin O’Brien in 2018, but Lorcan Tucker broke the run in Mirpur – where Andy McBrine also posted the country’s best bowling figures of six for 118 – and Curtis Campher and Paul Stirling followed him in Sri Lanka a few weeks later.
They are yet to win a game, but they are looking more at home. Still, this is unfamiliar territory.
At 26, Tucker, Ireland’s wicketkeeper-batter, has played 18 first-class games, most of them in Ireland’s inter-provincial championship and, including the warm-up against Essex last week, only five since 2019.
“Sometimes it feels more natural than others,” he says of building a first-class innings. “You’re kind of plodding along, trying to figure it out as you go. In Sri Lanka we fielded three days in a row – I don’t think it’ll get much harder than that, in 40C heat – and with wicketkeeping high concentration is required every ball and that is definitely a challenge.
“But when I was a kid we always used to watch Test cricket. It’s great now to be able to play and have that experience and it’s pretty special to be a part of history – white-ball cricket is new and fresh and exciting, but it doesn’t have that long history Test cricket has. Just to be a part of that is amazing.”
Tucker got a reminder of his place in cricketing history at Lord’s last summer. He was in Ireland’s squad when they played there in 2019, but, as a playing member of the MCC, was present when England played South Africa last August.
“I remember standing in the Long Room, looking out the window watching the lads go out,” he says of the 2019 game. “It’ll be the other way around now – it’ll be me walking down through the Long Room and going down those steps. It’ll be pretty nice to do it as an MCC member and then when I return in years to come to watch I’ll know I’ve done it myself. It’s a proud thing for me and my family.”
Tucker scored his century against Bangladesh after coming in at 51 for five, with his team 155 behind after the first innings and scrapping to stay in the contest (they ended up losing by seven wickets).
“One of the main things we try to do is break down the day into little mini-sessions,” he says. “The good thing about Test cricket is there will always be a break coming at some stage: drinks, lunch, tea, stumps. If you can take the little mini-sessions they add up eventually.
“It would have been nice to make a bit more of that, but that’s the nature of it – we’re learning on the job and looking to improve each time.”
England are using the Ireland Test as preparation for the Ashes and Tucker has already helped them overcome Australia once. When the second qualifying spot in Group 1 of last year’s T20 World Cup became a battle to see which side could accumulate the best net run rate, it was his unbeaten 71 that helped to restrict Australia’s to a beatable level and ease England’s passage to eventual victory (he received not a single message of thanks).
But as in 2019, when they bowled England out before lunch on the first day, and in last year’s World Cup, when they won a rain-affected game in Melbourne, Ireland will be trying to make themselves a nuisance.
“Looking back on the 2019 Test, it was great to make an impression,” Tucker says. “I know everybody thinks we don’t play much Test cricket so it should be an easy walkover, but for us it’s about trying to make a statement. Last time we bowled them out for 85 – I don’t know if that’s going to repeat itself but it’s the same mindset. We have to show we can put in good performances with the ball and bat, and that’s what earns you respect in international cricket.
“I know results haven’t gone our way but it’s not all that, there are smaller things I think people recognise and we’re trying to just build that. Hopefully, some day we can create a proper Test team that plays more consistently.”
Tucker is more comfortable with white-ball cricket, more familiar with its rhythms, but if Tests are still strange and draining, news they are not fashionable has yet to reach him. “There’s a lot of focus on T20 and franchise cricket and the money that it generates, but at the end of the day cricket is a game, not a revenue stream,” he says.
“That mindset, that cricket is a game, you have to hold that as the most important thing, and then Test cricket will show it has an important place. A lot of our lads know that, even though they’ve come from a white-ball background, it’s something we want to treasure.
“Australia, England and India play a lot of Test cricket between themselves but there’s got to be more to Test cricket than just those big teams – and we want to be a part of that.”
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