‘Spin could play a big part’ – Ed Joyce
Ed Joyce, Ireland's veteran batsman, believes teams with quality spinners in their ranks will hold an advantage at the Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe.
The 39-year-old has been part of two Ireland squads that travelled to Zimbabwe before this: in 2000 and then in 2015, with the hosts winning the one-day international series 2-1 on both occasions. In the “tough fought” 2015 series, Joyce remembered the Harare surface being slow and low, and expected more of the same in the Qualifier.
“We all looked at the tournament beforehand and thought spin would play a big part,” said the left-hander.
Over the past month, the team prepared accordingly, playing matches in Dubai and Pretoria.
“Luckily we were in Pretoria as well, and maybe the wickets were a little quicker than the ones we faced here, but they did take a bit of spin,” said Joyce. “We did face a bit of spin in the nets as well. We’ve all been working on our sweep, using our feet. It’s just about whether it works in games.”
It is also important for Ireland's seam bowlers to take pace off, he explained. “We do have some medium pacers who can take some pace off and all the seamers have been bowling their slower balls. We have people like [Paul] Stirling, who is a batsman, but bowls spin.”
Acknowledging that this gives Afghanistan – who have the No.1 ranked ODI bowler Rashid Khan in their side – an advantage, Joyce also sounded a note of caution.
“Everyone’s looking at Afghanistan, with their spin. They’ve got some high quality there. They probably hold a few aces, but I don’t think we can look too much at it. The wickets might not play the way we think they’d play, they might be flat, maybe have a bit of pace, so it’s important not to pre-judge it."
Joyce, who has played 74 ODIs for Ireland and England, is one of several members in the side who, as far as World Cup qualifiers are concerned, has been there, done that. He hoped the side’s experience would work to their advantage in the 10-team tournament, where only two spots in the Cricket World Cup are up for grabs.
“In these kinds of tournaments, experience does count for a lot. We’ve gone through a lot of qualifying tournaments – T20 World Cups and 50-over World Cups – and been successful most of the time. We’ve got good memories and that’ll help us.
“In saying that, we do have some young players in the team. We have James Shannon coming in and he might play. Simi Singh is not particularly young, but young in terms of international cricket. And some young bowlers like Peter Chase and Barry McCarthy, guys who have been around international cricket a couple of years, but haven’t played in these kind of tournaments.”
On a personal level, Joyce, who averages 38.40 in ODI cricket with six centuries, is aiming to be the leading run-scorer for his team and be up there in the whole competition.
In the longer term, there is Ireland’s historic first Test match to look forward to, when they face Pakistan on 11 May in Dublin. “We’re very grateful to Pakistan for coming to play us – a huge cricketing nation – and tickets have been selling well,” he said.
“We have a good tradition in playing World Cups, we’ve been in the last three now, and performed well. We’re desperate to get to 2019. But if that doesn’t happen, it’s good we have Test cricket. We’re Full Members now, and we have a lot of good fixtures in the next few years, and everything doesn’t ride necessarily on World Cups like it did previously.”