Ireland's opening conundrum
The pinch-blocker returns as a search for a long-term opener continues
Enter Andy McBrine - again.
To use Jarrod Kimber’s parlance, the pinch-blocker has returned.
If confused, watch the video below. All you need to know for now is that Ireland have returned to their stop-gap in the top order. On Wednesday, captain Andrew Balbirnie confirmed that McBrine will open the batting alongside Paul Stirling for the duration of the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
I make this the fourth time McBrine, Ireland’s off-spinner who certainly knows how to wield the blade, has had a run in the top order. The first came in a home series vs South Africa in 2021, then he had to step in when Covid ravaged the batting line-up in the famous West Indies series win away in early 2022. He had another crack against New Zealand during the home summer of 2022 when William Porterfield’s retirement left a hole.
Only this time, it’s different. Previously, McBrine batted at 3. Now, he has gone one better. It’s a new role, but Ireland are confident McBrine can do a job given his record in the top 3. In 8 matches at first drop in ODIs, he has scored 260 runs at an average of 37 and a strike-rate of just under 70.
The reason why journalist Jarrod Kimber called McBrine the pinch-blocker is because, as he saw it, promoting the bowling all-rounder ensured that Ireland’s batting would be elongated. McBrine could hang around long enough to let others do damage, albeit without doing much himself. His job was largely to survive, rather than dominate in the powerplay.
There is an element of truth in this, but nonetheless in a small sample size McBrine averages close to 40 up the order. That is not to be sniffed at, and is a figure bigger than you would expect from a pinch-blocker. However, ideally the strike-rate would be higher, perhaps supporting Kimber’s hypothesis.
The reason McBrine is there is the same as it was one year ago. Ever since the retirement of William Porterfield last summer, Ireland have yet to find an opening partner for Paul Stirling in the 50-over team.
Initially, Balbirnie had a go against New Zealand, with McBrine promoted to 3. The captain’s series was not good, scores of 9, 2 and 0 ensuring he didn’t get past double figures. Ever since those games, there was a sense coming out of the Irish camp that Balbirnie was just more comfortable at 3, something which he confirmed ahead of next week’s qualifiers.
“It was discussed if I could open, but I feel I can contribute to wins in the team at 3, that was important for me,” said Balbirnie on Wednesday afternoon. “I had a chat with Scra [McBrine], it wasn’t even really a discussion, he was absolutely all for it [opening] and I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes next week.
“He’s such an adaptable cricketer that you can put him anywhere, he takes it on the chin and goes for it. He gets in the team as an off-spinner as well so that frees up options down the order as well.”
McBrine’s record at 3 is better than Balbirnie’s opening the batting. Balbirnie’s figures atop the order (below), an average of just 21.5 at a strike-rate of a hair under 60, don’t make for particularly pretty reading.
Yes, McBrine’s figures are at 3, rather than opening, but it certainly sounds like the Donnemana man is more comfortable with the idea of opening than his skipper. When it comes to a choice between McBrine and Balbirnie atop the order, I’m not altogether unhappy with the decision they’ve made.
Long-term options
The fact that Ireland are still turning to McBrine to fill their top order hole is an indictment on the domestic system which has failed to produce a ready made, medium to long-term opener. Stephen Doheny was the most likely candidate given his runs last season at interpro level, but he wasn’t given an opportunity until January of this year given the focus on T20 cricket ahead of last year’s T20 World Cup. Ireland played no ODI cricket for the bones of six months between that New Zealand series last season and the Zimbabwe tour.
The opening problem was therefore kicked down the road. Doheny had a decent run in the side, nine games in Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Chelmsford, but one half-century at an average 23.14 meant he failed to nail down the role. Ahead of these qualifiers, a technical flaw saw him dropped. Nine games isn’t a short leash, but there is every chance he would still be given a chance to figure out that flaw at international level, as other young players such as Tector and Tucker have done, if this tournament wasn’t a ‘pinnacle event.’
PJ Moor came into the squad at Doheny’s expense, but he was never likely to open. Despite his role atop the order in the Test side and for the Munster Reds in white ball cricket last season, Cricket Ireland’s senior decision makers see him as a middle order player in limited overs cricket, hence a move down to 5 for Munster this season. It seems Moor is on this tour largely as a backup wicketkeeper and spare batter if someone gets injured, loses form or if they opt to balance the side with an extra bat.
The only other real option was Lorcan Tucker. Mimicking the T20 side, where Tucker moved up to 3, and having him open in 50-over cricket has been considered in the past. It was again for this tournament, but ultimately the decision was made to not upset the applecart in the middle order so close to a major competition.
“There were small discussions about it but we didn’t want to manoeuver too much, particularly on the eve of the competition,” said Balbirnie. “That happens and there’s a couple of places that change. Lorcan’s done a lot of his work in the middle order in ODI cricket, he played well in that last game against Bangladesh.
“We’ve had decent success as a one-day team, guys know their roles well so we didn’t want to make too much change in the batting order.”
Tucker atop the order would have been my preference. He is one of Ireland’s best three batters at this stage, alongside Stirling and Tector. Having a top four with all three of those players makes sense. It screams of the positivity Ireland have been trying to inject into their white ball cricket over the last 12 months - have your best players face as many deliveries as possible.
Instead, the decision is to not upset the flow on the eve of a tournament. I wouldn’t go as far as to label it a negative, defensive call, but it certainly isn’t the opposite. Tucker provides solidity in that middle order in that he can both be aggressive early in his innings if given a platform by the top order, while he can equally come in after a collapse and rebuild. Regardless, Campher and Dockrell can fulfil similar roles to a high enough ability, granted not to the same extent as Tucker, that there should be enough confidence in the middle and lower order.
From outside the squad looking in, the decision to go with McBrine screams of short term-ism: these qualifiers are important, we know McBrine can do enough of a job atop the order to avoid disaster, use him to get by and hope in-form players dominate to take Ireland through.
Many find it difficult to think that Ireland, if they qualify, will go into a World Cup with McBrine as their opening batter. However, despite all of us saying this is a stop-gap, a plaster until someone else steps up, the camp genuinely can see a scenario where McBrine succeeds and fulfils the same role in India this autumn.
“We’ve had a few openers over the last few years, it’s a hard position to nail down,” explained Balbirnie. “I think the character Andy has, he could potentially do that. He’s got a good run of it now and if he potentially helps us qualify for a World Cup I’ve no doubt he could do it if we qualify. It is a long way off and we need to make sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves.”
In the past, the glaring weakness for McBrine when up the order was the short ball. Against the West Indies, he had to retire hurt in one game after being clocked in the head. He played the delivery reasonably well recently in his unbeaten knock at Lord’s. Maybe he has improved and looks more like a solid top order player?
Or maybe there aren’t enough high quality pace bowlers at this tournament to constantly expose McBrine with short pitch bowling. There certainly will be at the World Cup, should Ireland get there.
Either way, as always with this Ireland team, they have to make things up a bit on the fly. As hinted at earlier, they don’t have a domestic system of a high enough quality where a young batter can play 50 interpros and develop a good enough technique against good bowling to move straight to international level and survive. Some players learned enough on the job at the top level to thrive, a la Tector and Tucker, but doing so in the middle order is a completely different beast to doing it against the new ball.
McBrine opening should be a temporary measure. It shouldn’t work long-term, it shouldn’t make that much sense. In all honesty, Tucker should be doing the job, maybe even Moor given he has a few scores for Munster there and is a frontline batter.
Yet it is still feasible that McBrine succeeds at this tournament and plays a role in helping Ireland qualify. That batshit crazy idea and the lack of long-term solutions, they are incredibly frustrating for watchers of Irish cricket, but they are also major reasons why we watch - the extra level of romanticism they engender.
As insane an idea as it is to conceive of, nothing would pluck at the heartstrings more in this tournament than McBrine guiding Ireland to India.