Having sat out the ODI series Stuart Poynter made a huge impact on Ireland’s tour to Zimbabwe when he scored his maiden first class century in the four-day match against Zimbabwe A at the Harare Sports Club earlier in the week.
The Durham batsman scored his first century for Ireland in 2014 during a one-day game against Sri Lanka A, and started the 2015 season fantastically well making a century at Lord’s for Ireland A against the MCC.
Having been selected for June’s T20 series against Scotland and the ICC World T20 qualifiers in July, Poynter know he is in the mind of the selectors, especially in the shortest format of the game, but he does not want to become pigeon holed into being a specialist.
“I think in the last year I have been mainly involved in the T20 squads, but I don’t see myself as a specialist, I know what I can do in all formats of the game and I need to make sure I show the coaches and selectors that as well.
“I have shown what I can do in 50-over cricket and I just need to make sure the same is true when it comes to multi-day cricket.”
His innings in Harare will have gone a long way towards proving his capability in the longer formats of the game, his 125 even more impressive when you see that no other player in the Ireland team made it past 50.
Having been part of the squad for the whole tour, Poynter had to wait until the final match of the tour to get a start, and he was well aware of the opportunity.
“It can be frustrating being part of a squad and not playing in the games, but you have to keep yourself focussed and working hard the whole time. I think you can put a lot of pressure on yourself in that situation when you do get a game, and I was really careful not to do that before the four-day game.
“It was great to get out there in the middle and score some runs, and just as importantly, spend some time at the crease. Zimbabwe have been great hosts and the cricket has been really tough, with makes it all the more pleasing to get runs against them and show Bracers (John Bracewell) what I am capable of in the middle.”
Spending the last couple of English summers playing in Chester-le-Street for Durham has helped Poynter develop as a player, but it has done little to help him when it comes to playing is African conditions.
“Yeah, Durham is not always the warmest place to play, I’m lucky that I get to wear gloves all the time as I keep wicket at Durham! It is definitely something you have to get used to when you come to places like Zimbabwe, the temperatures are so different you need to make sure you get enough fluid to stay hydrated and keep your concentration.
“The support staff, especially Brendan [Connor] did a fantastic job getting us prepared to play in the heat in terms of the amount of work we did in the first couple of days, and they all made sure we had enough water and cold towels available to us and that really helps.
“The altitude here also makes a bit of a difference, you definitely get short of breath a little quicker, so that was something else we worked on getting used to when we arrived.”
Originally just part of the 15-man squad to tour Zimbabwe, Poynter was due to be returning home today, but an injury to Max Sorensen saw the batter called up to be part of the ICC Inter-Continental Cup squad to face Namibia in Windhoek starting on Saturday.
Having already played two games in Ireland’s last ICup campaign, Poynter has had a taste of the action and is keen to remain part of the squad.
“It’s one of those really horrible things, as obviously I’m happy to get the chance to be in the squad, but I’m gutted for Max because he has worked so hard and was performing really well at the end of the Inter-Pro season.
“I’ve played ICup before, but it has a whole different meaning now with it being a pathway towards Test cricket, I think there is a lot more intensity around it, not just from us but from all the teams and it is something I really want to be involved with.”
Scoring that century in Harare will have done his chances of selection no harm heading into the game in Windhoek, but Poynter is not jumping to any conclusions about being in the team yet.
“Scoring a hundred in the Zimbabwe A match has obviously given me a chance of playing, but you have to remember that Purdy [William Porterfield] and Joycey [Ed Joyce] need to come back into the team and I can’t take for granted that I will play just because I scored a hundred.
“In my position I know I am not a regular in the team yet, so all I can do is make things as hard as possible for the coach and selectors. I’d like to think that is what I have done last week, if I had got two ducks in that Zimbabwe game it would have been easy to leave me out, but scoring those runs means it is now not an easy decision.”
Ireland’s ICC InterContinental Cup match against Namibia will get underway on Saturday morning at 10am local time, which will be 9am in Ireland. It will be Ireland’s second match in this ICup campaign having beaten the UAE in Malahide earlier this year.
Namibia also go into the match with a 100% record after they beat Hong Kong at home in their opening match. You can read a preview of the match with exclusive interviews on cricketireland.ie tomorrow, with highlights from each days play also exclusively available on cricketireland.ie.
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