England vs Ireland, first ODI 2023 live: updates on start time
Theoretically, today’s match is a warm-up for the ODI World Cup, which starts in a fortnight’s time in India. In reality, it’s anything but. Because Joe Root is the only member of England’s World Cup squad playing in these three matches against Ireland.
The ECB, not unreasonably, values resting =players more highly than flogging them through a three-match series in late September. The same is probably not true of the broadcasters, however.
England’s team is a weird hybrid of experience and potential, all operating under the leadership of Zak Crawley, who has barely any captaincy experience beyond his schoolboy days at Tonbridge.
Root specifically requested that he be included in the squad for today’s game (which is being played on his home ground). He knows he needs to find some form, having scored 39 runs in his four innings in the recent series against New Zealand.
“If anyone has forgotten how good he is, that’s their fault,” Crawley said. “He’s just using it to find some rhythm - he’s a big rhythm player.”
Root’s 162 caps aside, the remaining 12 players in today’s squad have just 38 one-day appearances between them at international level, with four uncapped newcomers and three more who have turned out just once.
Even Crawley has only played three ODIs, back in 2021 when he was brought into a team decimated by Covid. He says he is therefore happy to be going into today’s match with Root’s experienced shoulders to lean on.
“I love spending time with Rooty. To have him in the side as a batsman and former captain is going to be tremendously useful for me and the team,” he said.
“It’s great having him here. Especially so for me as captain, because I can lean on him for that kind of stuff. I played under him for a long time and stood next to him at slip when he was Test captain. It’s great to have him in the team and I will look to him. He’s a great cricket brain and experienced guy.
“No-one works harder than Joe, that’s why he’s the best. We all try to emulate him as much as we can. He’s a great person to learn from and a role model for us all. I hope he gets what he needs from it too.”
