Ireland Cricket has announced their squad for the first-ever Test against Zimbabwe, set to take place at Stormont in Belfast from July 25 to 29. The squad includes familiar names such as Andrew Balbirnie and Mark Adair, along with promising talents Matthew Humphreys and Gavin Hoey.

Chief Selector Andrew White emphasized the importance of the selected players and their contributions to the team. He welcomed the return of Matthew Humphreys to the Test squad, acknowledging the young player's hard work and resilience. "Humphreys made his Test debut in Sri Lanka and found the going difficult against good players of spin out in the subcontinent. He'd admit himself that he went through a period of a loss of form and maybe a loss of confidence, but he's worked extremely hard to come back into the reckoning," said White.

Gavin Hoey, a talented leg spinner, also made the squad. White highlighted Hoey's potential as a strong wicket-taking option. "Hoey is a talented leg spinner, and his ability to spin the ball both ways gives us a strong wicket-taking option. Again, he’s a player that's been on the radar for a while and can play across all three formats," added White.

Ireland made history earlier this year by winning their first-ever Test against Afghanistan by six wickets in the UAE.

"On the back of our first victory [against Afghanistan], we’re definitely looking to back that up with another win. We're not looking to just pick a squad that will compete; we're looking at a squad that can actually win the Test match - by taking 20 wickets and scoring the runs that we need to score arguably in the first innings to set up the victory," concluded White.

Ireland squad for one-off Test vs Zimbabwe

Andrew Balbirnie (c), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gavin Hoey, Graham Hume, Matthew Humphreys, Andy McBrine, Barry McCarthy, James McCollum, PJ Moor, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, and Craig Young.