‘We have a great chance’ – Rankin gets ready for Pakistan

Ireland might be playing their maiden Test match, starting Friday 11 May against Pakistan at home in Dublin, but it could be the second Test for one of their players – six-foot-eight fast bowler Boyd Rankin.

Rankin, now 33, became eligible to play for England and was called up for the Ashes tour of Australia in 2013-14. He got his chance in the final Test, at Sydney Cricket Ground, but bowled only 8.2 overs before going out of the attack because of cramps. In the second Australian innings, Rankin bowled 12.3 overs and picked up the final wicket, that of Peter Siddle. England, however, lost the match by 281 runs and conceded the five-match series 5-0.

Rankin played limited-overs internationals for England too, but then returned to Ireland in 2016. And now he had been given a second shot at Test cricket after being selected in the squad of 14 to be led by William Porterfield.

“It’s going to be a massive occasion for everyone,” Rankin was quoted as saying by Cricket Europe. “A lot of the lads have been waiting for this chance for a long time. Someone like Ed Joyce has obviously played a lot of cricket and was pretty unlucky not to play a Test for England. Someone like him stands out, because he’s 39 and probably won’t get many more opportunities to play Test cricket.”

Joyce, the top-order batsman, played limited-overs cricket for England but didn’t get in the first XI in Tests despite being selected for the 2006-07 Ashes as replacement for Marcus Trescothick.

Rankin, who called his England Test debut “a bit of a blur”, added “There will be nerves around but we want to do well. The main thing is to try to enjoy it as much as you can. Looking back to my Test debut with England, it went by pretty quickly.”

Though playing at home, Ireland are expected to find it tough against Pakistan, currently No.7 in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings.

“They’re obviously a dangerous team who have played a lot of Test cricket but they haven’t had a lot of match practice in England so hopefully we can catch them off guard,” said Rankin. “We want to show what we can do and if we can compete with them it would be a great start.

“Home conditions should help, but they have a decent bowling attack so they can make use of them as well. We have to take our opportunities but we have a great chance. It’ll be a case of trying to do the basics well, like we have done over the last 10 years.”

One of the changes for any side starting out in Tests is the shift to five-day cricket. Ireland are in a good position on that front, with many of their players having played county cricket in England for many years.

“It will be a different challenge, over five days, but we have a lot of players who have played a lot of county cricket and there’s not much difference between that and Test cricket,” pointed out Rankin. “The main thing I found was that the intensity is there all the time, while it might dip in county cricket. But in Tests, the bowlers constantly come back and the batters just keep batting.”

Rankin is one of many pace bowlers in the Ireland squad – Tim Murtagh, Tyrone Kane and Nathan Smith are the others, while Kevin O’Brien and Stuart Thompson are the all-rounders – and with his experience, should fancy his chances of going out for his second Test match in a couple of days.