Team India To Tour Ireland In 2018 For A Short Limited-Overs Series

Ahead of the challenging tour of England next summer, Virat Kohli & Co. will reportedly travel to Ireland to take on the Irishmen in two games. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to announce the schedule, but media reports are suggesting that the Indian cricket board wants one ODI and one T20 while the hosts want to have back-to-back T20s on consecutive days.

On Monday (December 11), the BCCI announced Indian team’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) from 2019 till 2023 with reports suggesting that the team will play a total of 158 international matches (37 Tests, 67 ODIs and 54 T20Is). The board also decided that the team would play almost half of the matches against traditional giants – Australia, South Africa and England.

“Out of the total number of matches that India would be playing in the new cycle, 50 percent of the matches would be played against Australia, England and South Africa,” BCCI secretary Amitabh Chaudhary had said here after the meeting.

During the very meeting, the idea to visit Ireland before the tour of England was also proposed. India had previously visited Ireland way back in 2007 to play a solitary ODI and had gone on to thrash the hosts by nine wickets. Overall, India have played against Ireland and have ended on the winning side on all the occasions.

Meanwhile, another big decision taken at the meeting was that India would play Afghanistan in their first-ever Test. Afghanistan along with Ireland had earned Test match status earlier this year.

“Afghans were scheduled to play their first Test in 2019 versus Australia but considering the historic relationship between India and Afghanistan, we decided to host their first Test,” Choudhary said.

India to play inaugural test against Afghanistan. welcome them to five-day cricket. @ACBofficials @BCCI

— Rahul Johri (@RJohri) December 11, 2017

During the meeting, the BCCI also decided to revoke the ban on Rajasthan Cricket Association in addition to rejecting the demands of the now defunct IPL franchise, Kochi Tuskers Kerala who want a hefty compensation of Rs 850 crore from the board.

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