Ireland's cricket team is creating history today as it marks the beginning of a historic journey for one of the oldest cricket-playing nations in the highest echelons of world cricket. Led by William Porterfield, the Irishmen have become the latest addition to the illustrious list of Test-playing nations as they are taking on Pakistan at Malahide in Dublin, starting today.

“It would be remiss if we didn’t talk about everything that went before us,” Porterfield said ahead of the historic debut Test. “Not only over the last 5-10 years which everyone will probably remember most, but for every cricketer that’s ever played for Ireland,” he added.

It’s a momentous occasion for a team that has been performing quite consistently in T20s and ODIs against a slew of top-class cricketers. The importance of the Test status for Ireland was reflected in a tweet by star Irish batsman Andy Balbirnie’s, which said, “Tomorow 11 of us will represent the 688 who have gone before us. Thank you for paving the way for us to fulfill our dreams.”

Echoing those sentiments, Porterfield mentioned: “There’s a lot of people that have dedicated a lot of their lives to Irish cricket to make this day happen.”

“It culminates in us being lucky enough to be the ones that take the pitch for that first Test match.”

On Sunday – the third day’s play will see a parade and celebration of Ireland’s finest cricketers from yesteryear.

Porterfield, 34, is one of a sizable group of Irish players in the latter stages of their careers for whom today’s Test debut has marked the culmination of years of hard work. His fellow Irishman, Tim Murtagh, remarked, “It’s all becoming quite real now.”

Incidentally, it was Pakistan whom the unfancied Irish side defeated to create quite a sensation in the 2007 World Cup. That victory subsequently set the ball rolling for an extraordinary rise of Ireland cricket.

Welcoming the newest Test-playing nation and his rival side, Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed said, “I think it's a great achievement for Ireland cricket and Ireland’s cricket board to play Test cricket.”

“It is a big honor for me and my team to play the historic Test match.”

The history of the game of cricket in Ireland can be traced back to the 1850s when the gentlemen’s game was introduced by English rulers and spread by soldiers and the railway network. But Ireland’s status as a cricket-playing nation was always dwarfed by their English counterparts, and never quite expanded beyond the local level even though cricket became the island's chief pastime and the Irish players were good enough to beat the MCC and English sides a few times in the past. 

Irish cricket proved to be a revelation in the 2000s as a slew of giant-killing acts in the past few World Cups of the new millennium helped Ireland claim the coveted status of a Test-playing nation in June last year, when the International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded the country, along with Afghanistan, to elevate it to the highest pantheon in world cricket.

Ireland became an Associate member of the ICC in 1993 and played in the World Cup qualifiers in 1994, 1997 and 2001 without making the cut to the quadrennial World Cup in those years. But their big moment came in 2005 when Ed Joyce, averaging nearly 100, helped the Irishmen qualify for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. Even though Joyce went on to play for England in the Caribbean, Ireland, under coach Adrian Birrell, caused a major upset in the tournament by beating Pakistan in Kingston. 

However, Dublin-born dual-international Joyce returned to play for the country of his birth at the 2011 World Cup, where his underdog Irish side stunned a fancied England and stunningly made it to the Super Six stage. The Irish side pulled off their third miracle win in their third successive World Cup appearance in 2015 after defeating the West Indies. Even though they have quickly emerged as a formidable side in T20s and ODIs, the ICC’s decision to have a shortened 2019 World Cup with less teams saw Ireland missing the bus by a whisker.

Joyce, who is a part of Ireland’s maiden Test squad today, is one of 11 Irishmen who have played Test cricket before his country clinched their much-awaited Test status. The most recent Irish player to feature in a Test match was 2-meter-tall (6-foot-7) fast bowler Boyd Rankin, who fulfilled his Test ambition for England in 2014 before returning to Ireland’s fold in 2016.

Along with the 39-year-old Joyce, Kevin and Niall O’Brien, Gary Wilson, and captain William Porterfield, Rankin is part of the golden generation of Irish cricketers who have found a place in his country’s historic first Test squad.