Four New Faces in Ireland Squad for New Zealand Test

Ireland have included four uncapped players in their squad for the one-off Test against New Zealand. Jake Egan, Tom Mayes, Liam McCarthy and Reuben Wilson have all earned their maiden call-ups to the Test squad.

Paul Stirling, Barry McCarthy, Jordan Neill, Gavin Hoey and Josh Little are unavailable due to injuries. Andy Balbirnie, the only player to have featured in all 12 of Ireland’s Tests so far, will continue to lead the side as captain.

Thirty-two-year-old allrounder Jake Egan was born in Perth and scored a century in his only first-class match. Earlier this week, his 120-run knock helped Strikers win the Emerald Challenge title. Twenty-five-year-old bowling allrounder Tom Mayes has played five first-class matches so far. In the same tournament, he claimed six wickets and also scored 25 runs for Strikers.

Liam McCarthy, 24, was born in South Africa and moved to Ireland in 2021. The bowling allrounder has taken 19 wickets in six first-class matches and has already represented Ireland in four white-ball internationals across both formats. Meanwhile, 19-year-old medium pacer Reuben Wilson is the freshest face in the squad, having played just one first-class match alongside 12 List A games and 13 T20s.

Stirling and Hoey were part of Ireland’s playing XI in their last Test against Bangladesh in Mirpur, while Barry McCarthy featured in the Sylhet Test.

This will be only the second Test match to be held in Belfast. Ireland won the first one against Zimbabwe in 2024. It will also mark Ireland’s first-ever Test against New Zealand.

Ireland squad:

Andy Balbirnie (captain), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Cade Carmichael, Stephen Doheny, Jake Egan, Matthew Humphreys, Tom Mayes, Andrew McBrine, Liam McCarthy, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Reuben Wilson and Craig Young.