Rankin poised for Ireland return

Boyd Rankin is poised to rejoin Ireland in time for next year’s World Twenty20 in India.

He held discussions with Ireland’s coach John Bracewell about making a return early last season but asked to delay his decision. But England overlooked him last summer and he has not been included in any winter tour parties at any level, with a place in the squad to tour South Africa also regarded as highly unlikely.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that Rankin is expected to meet Cricket Ireland officials in the next fortnight, presumably soon after England’s squad for South Africa is announced – with his name absent. The return of Rankin would be a major fillip for Ireland whose pace bowling is their weakest suit.

England have been resistant to Rankin’s switch back to Ireland, concerned about their limited pace bowling resources, and repeatedly holding out vague hopes of further international calls, but, at 31, he now regards them as unlikely.

Under current regulations, which were amended last year, a player can return to their Associate country after a two-year gap since playing for a Full Member. Rankin’s last England was an ODI against Australia on January 17, 2014.

He switched his loyalties to England in 2013, whereupon he played seven ODIs, two T20Is and a solitary Test against Australia in Sydney when he was part of a Land of the Giants pace attack that England wrongly imagined would present a formidable Ashes challenge.

His England career has been an unsettled one. He questioned whether he should stay in the game after making a nervous Test debut in Sydney at the tail end of England’s 2014-15 whitewash in Australia when he twice left the field with cramp on the opening day. He was to play only two more ODIs in his England career. It was not all nerves, however: on returning to England, he discovered he had suffered a shoulder cartilage injury in fielding practice two days before the Test.

John Bracewell identified one his priorities as bringing Rankin back into the fold when he succeeded Phil Simmons as Ireland coach earlier this year.

The temptation of regular Ireland cricket included a World Twenty20 in India next year and, further ahead, the prospect of a potential Test against England at Lord’s in 2019.

Bracewell said at the time that he planned to meet Rankin and his director of cricket at Warwickshire, Dougie Brown, adding: “I am going to sit down with every Irish player currently in the English game, and with their coaches, and work out what is in the interest of both parties.”