Ed Joyce

A talented and technically sound batsman, Ed Joyce, is the first Irishman in the modern era to have played both for Ireland and England. He represented England in the 2007 World Cup after taking Ireland through to the Qualifiers but switched back to his home team as he found it difficult to forge a successful career with the Full Member side. He represented Ireland in the 2011 World Cup and ICC had to give him special dispensation to switch teams.

The southpaw decided to hang up his boots immediately after featuring in Ireland's debut Test against Pakistan. He ended his career as the fifth-highest run-getter for Ireland in ODIs with 2151 runs from 61 games at an average of 41.36. Joyce also played 17 ODIs for England between 2006 and 2007, scoring 471 runs at an average of 27.70 before switching back to playing for Ireland.

Joyce performed for Ireland from 2001 to 2005 but harboured a desire to play at the highest level. After completing his English residency qualification, he made his ODI debut for England in 2006. His T20I debut came just two days later. However, he missed a month's action after that due to a sprained ankle. Returning back to cricket, he put up some solid performances in Australia, even scoring a century at the SCG. However, the tour was not a pleasant one for England and he was dropped due to inconsistency and with the likes of Kevin Pietersen doing well.

Joyce comes from a big sporting family. His brothers have played in the Irish men's team while his twin sisters have represented Irish women. His mother is an official scorer and one of his elder brothers is a professional chess player. Joyce began playing cricket from a very young age. He joined Middlesex in 1999 and won the NBC Denis Compton Award a year later. He played for the county until 2008. He struck his career-best 211 against Warwickshire while playing for Middlesex. He led the team to victory in the 2008 T20 cup after which he switched to Sussex for better prospects. He was brilliant in the first season, scoring three tons and was named in England's provisional squad for the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009. Three years later, he took over Sussex's captaincy, succeeding Michael Yardy and led till 2015.

After almost 20 years at the English first class circuit, Joyce hung up his boots to concentrate on Irish cricket. His county career saw him scoring more than 18000 runs for Middlesex and Sussex. A solid batsman, Joyce's cricketing acumen has been rated highly by all and sundry in the cricketing fraternity and his presence at the top of the order ahead of Ireland's first ever Test would only help Test cricket's newest entrants.

Ironically, Joyce's ODI debut had come against England but then he was one of the members of the WC 2011 Irish team which shocked England and the cricketing world thanks to the blitzkrieg from Kevin O Brien. Since then, Joyce had been one of Ireland's most experienced middle-order batsman, until he called time on his career. He had a successful 2014 season with Sussex, scoring seven centuries at a solid average of 66 in Division One of the Championship. One of England's selectors Angus Fraser even stated that had Joyce been eligible, he would have been considered for a spot in England's Test side.

In the 2015 WC, Joyce improved his strike rate and scored 246 runs from 6 games for Ireland at a strike-rate of almost 100. He was just behind skipper Porterfield in the runs tally and that propelled Ireland within touching distance of place in the quarters. His dream of playing a fourth World Cup though was shattered as Ireland could not qualify for the grand event in 2019. Joyce also missed out on a couple of games and looked a little out of touch.

One of the most bizarre things to have happened in Joyce's career was a weird dismissal in a Championship game against Warwickshire in 2009. He swept a leg-side delivery off Ant Botha straight into the pocket of Jonathan Trott, who was fielding at short leg. Trott was taking evasive action, shielding himself from the ball and was stunned to find the ball firmly lodged in his right pocket.

by Kumar Abhisekh Das