Google News Andrew Balbirnie: The team is highly motivated before the match with Sri Lanka
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Andrew Balbirnie, the captain of the Ireland team, stressed that his team is fully motivated and ready for the Test Match against Sri Lanka this weekend. It was evident in the Irish match against Bangladesh that they are not to be underestimated and that they should be taken seriously.
Balbirnie is aware of the dangers posed by Sri Lanka, and he wants to achieve a successful outcome with them. "It was certainly backs to the wall stuff on day two and a lot of people probably wrote us off yesterday but our day was as good a Test day as Ireland as had - the character, application and skill," Balbirnie said, as quoted by cricbuzz.com "We are as prepared as we can possibly be (for Sri Lanka) with a Test match in the sub-continent under our belt.
If we were going into two Tests against Sri Lanka with no red-ball cricket, let alone Test cricket, it would be very challenging but we know Sri Lanka are a very good team in their own conditions. But the lads will be confident, we have had enough good performances from our new guys that if we could get a couple more things right we could give it a crack.
We want to try and win Test matches and will always do that. We are desperate to get on the board but we know we have to learn quickly," he concluded.
Lorcan Tucker
The Irish captain is satisfied with the performance of many players, but he especially emphasized his satisfaction with Lorcan Tucker who earned his maiden Test century.
"So thrilled for him (Tucker). Over the last 18 months he has come into his own and that was arguably as good a hundred as I've seen in an Irish shirt, Kevy (O'Brien)'s first hundred is up there but yesterday he counterpunched and it was an amazing effort.
Having kept for 70-80 overs, his body wasn't used to that and having not played a Test match," he said.
