West Indies tour of Ireland 2025 | 1st ODI at Castle Avenue, Dublin Match Preview

West Indies will meet Ireland in the first ODI of the three-match series at Castle Avenue in Dublin on Wednesday. Both teams will be looking to gain crucial ranking points with one eye on the automatic qualification for the 2027 ODI World Cup. With the top eight teams, apart from the hosts, as of 31st March 2027, qualifying directly for the marquee event, West Indies and Ireland will have their task cut out. The visitors are currently placed ninth as per the latest ICC ODI rankings while Ireland are in 12th place.

Ireland are coming into this series after identical 2-1 ODI series defeats to South Africa and Zimbabwe. While they lost to the Proteas in Abu Dhabi in October 2024, the defeat to Zimbabwe came in Harare in February this year. Ireland have called up the uncapped trio of batter Cade Carmichael, and pacers Thomas Mayes and Liam McCarthy for the West Indies series while bowling all-rounder Mark Adair will miss the ODI leg as he is still recovering from a knee injury he suffered during the Zimbabwe series.

WI Form: LWWWW

IRE Form: LWLWL

West Indies hold an edge in their ODI head-to-head record against Ireland with 11 wins against three. However, Ireland have been victorious in the last two outings of this fixture which dates back to 2022. 

WI 11-3 IRE

Castle Avenue will be holding its first ODI in six years with the Ireland, West Indies and Bangladesh ODI tri-series in May 2019 being the last series played here. The pitch will support shot-making with batters taking over after the initial assistance to bowlers. The venue has seen three of its top-four highest totals during the May 2019 series with West Indies’ 381/3 being the highest. Captains winning the toss will look to chase down the target as four of the last five matches have been won by teams batting second.

The forecast at the venue for tomorrow looks sunny with a maximum temperature of 22 degrees during the day which may go to six degrees at night. However, there are very less chances of rain with the probability of precipitation being around five percent. 

IRE Expected XI

Paul Stirling (c), Andy Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Andy McBrine, Josh Little, Craig Young, Matthew Humphreys, Barry McCarthy

Shai Hope (c), Brandon King, Keacy Carty, Evin Lewis, Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase, Romario Shepherd, Justin Greaves, Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales, Gudakesh Motie

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