Bready native Craig Young hoping to make Ireland test debut against England

​The one-off test match at the home of cricket gets underway this Thursday and the North West Warriors paceman is keeping his fingers crossed he features.

The bowler, who is coming back from injury, played his part in Ireland’s warm-up game against Essex which they won by 10 wickets, so he hopes he’s done enough to feature this week.

“It has been a long road. I had a chat with Boyd (Rankin) just before the season started, when I was still sore with injuries, and I said to him that I sort of needed the stars to align for me and everything to go perfect for me to be in with a chance to be involved in the Lord’s test and, by luck, touch wood, so far everything has gone to plan,” he stated.

“It would be a dream come true to make my test debut at Lord’s, so fingers crossed I get into the team and get that call to play against England.”

The 33-year-old, who is joined by fellow North West Warriors Andy McBrine and Graham Hume, in Heinrich Malan’s squad, admits that while it would be a dream to make his test debut, facing this impressive, all out attacking England side who want to win every test match, could be daunting. However, it’s a challenge he and all the squad is ready to take on.

“I can’t say I’m dying about England’s approach to be honest,” he joked.

“Look it’s a challenge and that’s the thing you want as a player, you want challenges. No one in our squad is worried about it, the lads just want to get stuck in and get on with whatever is in front of us.”

Thursday’s test will be shown live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket channels.