Young and Campher ruled out of West Indies ODIs

Ireland have been dealt a double blow with injuries to fast bowler Craig Young and fast-bowling allrounder Curtis Campher ruling them out of the ODIs against West Indies starting on May 21 in Dublin.

While Young sustained a hamstring injury and has been replaced by Jordan Neill, Campher fractured a finger while batting in the nets and has been replaced by wicketkeeper-batter Stephen Doheny.

Young picked up the injury last week while playing in an Inter-Provincial Cup match for North West Warriors against Leinster Lightning in Oak Hill. He could not complete his ninth over and finished with figures of 8.5-1.49-1, even as he struck with the wicket of Barry McCarthy with the last ball he bowled. The 47th over of the innings was then completed by Scott MacBeth.

Campher's injury was a lot more recent; he fractured a finger while batting in the nets on Monday. The injuries add to Ireland's concerns as Mark Adair is already out of the ODI series to recover from a knee injury before he plays the following T20Is.

"It's not ideal when you lose a player to injury just prior to a series, but unfortunately, both Young and Campher join a bit of a lengthy list on the rehabilitation table," Andrew White, the national selector, said on Monday. "Most pertinently, our seam attack is heavily impacted with Mark Adair, Graham Hume, Craig Young, Fionn Hand and Curtis Campher all out.

"This series will be a real test of our depth, and instead of bemoaning what we won't have, my view is that these absences provide a real opportunity for some of our up-and-coming talent to play at home against a world-class opposition."

Captain Paul Stirling was of the view that the injuries would give the newer faces more games than they had expected.

"Yeah, look it's unfortunate that injuries happen in sport and I think you've got to look at the positive side of this that there's going to be a few new faces around probably getting a look slightly earlier than we had considered," Stirling said on Tuesday. "Ultimately, getting more games of cricket into a number of different cricketers is going to help us in the long run."

Doheny last played ODIs against South Africa in the UAE last October and has 11 ODIs and three T20Is under his belt. He comes into the squad soon after a century last week in the domestic 50-over competition for Munster Reds against Northern Knights. He had played for Ireland A in the one-day tri-series against Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A before that last month.

Neill, the 19-year-old batter, is the fourth uncapped player to join the Ireland squad after Cade Carmichael, the top-order batter, and seamers Thomas Mayes and Liam McCarthy.

All three ODIs will be played in Dublin on May 21, 23 and 25 before the three T20Is in Bready on June 12, 14 and 15.