Ireland, the latest entrants in the Test club along with Afghanistan, could be set to play their first official Test against Pakistan in May next year.

Cricket Ireland are hoping to persuade Pakistan to be its first opponents in the longest format of the game at Malahide next year.

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Cricket Ireland officials will be travelling to Auckland in New Zealand for the ICC Board meeting this week where they will lobby for international fixtures for the next two calendar years.

According to a report published by the Independent in Ireland, a well placed source has revealed that Irish cricket officials will look to use the Auckland meeting to tie down Pakistan for the Malahide fixture.

“The interim spadework has been done,” the source told the Independent.

Pakistan have just come off their first ever Test series defeat in the UAE since moving base in 2009 after Sri Lanka pulled off a shock upset.

Pakistan is scheduled to tour England for two Tests, fives ODIs and a solitary T20I in May next year and Ireland hopes to use this window to organize the match at Malahide.

The subcontinent team might not play another Test until the proposed clash with Ireland next year. They were scheduled to tour India in early 2018 but that bilateral series remains off limits currently owing to the Indian Government’s stance.

The team is currently coming to terms with the retirements of greats like Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan after sliding from the top of the ICC Test rankings to a lowly seventh below Sri Lanka after their latest defeat.

Ireland and Afghanistan were granted full Test membership rights after years of lobbying in the Annual General Meeting of the ICC in London earlier this June.