ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 04: Josh Little of Ireland celebrates with team mates after getting a hat trick with the wicket of Mitchell Santner of New Zealand LBW for a duck during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup match between New Zealand and Ireland at Adelaide Oval on November 04, 2022 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images)
A change to the Irish cricket schedule will see the nation play their first-ever Test series when they travel to Sri Lanka in April.
The original plan was to play one test and two ODIs during their visit, but that has since changed, and when including their upcoming single-test match against England in June, Ireland will double the number of tests they've ever played this year.
Ireland earned test status alongside Afghanistan in 2017, but they have not played a Test in four years after facing off against Pakistan, England and Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019.
Ireland is yet to win a Test match but will be excited at finally returning to the test arena, as are their opponents, who were seeking to play some more this year after only being scheduled to play five.
Former Sri Lankan captain, and current batter Angelo Matthews, spoke about not playing enough to the press after his side's narrow defeat to New Zealand in a thriller.
"Everyone's talking about Test cricket dying, but we're not doing any good for Test cricket playing only five Tests a year. Hopefully we'll get more matches this year. Five feels like not enough." Matthews said.
However, this change is surprising, considering that both sides are in a challenging position to automatically qualify for the ODI World Cup in India in October and November this year.
Adding this extra test match will put off their preparation and fight to qualify as Sri Lanka sit 10th and Ireland sit 11th on the ODI super league table that sees the top eight teams automatically qualify for the World Cup.
Should either or both sides fail to make the top eight they will enter a qualification playoff in Zimbabwe in June-July.
Regardless, this new challenge will be great for both teams as Sri Lanka finally returns home in a test match for the first time since July last year, and Ireland gets to hone their skills in cricket's toughest format.
Both tests will take place in Galle, and the new dates see the first match run from April 16-20 and the second from April 24-28.