Ireland name squads for women's tour to South Africa, Aimee Maguire returns

Published - 30 Oct 2025, 22:29 IST | Updated - 30 Oct 2025, 22:33 IST

The Ireland Women’s squads to travel to South Africa in December for a six-match white-ball series have been named, with 19-year-old spinner Aimee Maguire returning to the senior set-up for the first time since receiving ICC clearance for her remodelled bowling action.

Maguire’s return is welcome news for the squad, the left-arm orthodox spinner has taken 25 wickets in 20 matches (across formats) with a best of 5-19 against England.

In further welcome news, seam bowling all-rounder Georgina Dempsey has returned after a lengthy injury lay-off. Dempsey last appeared for Ireland in January, however, missed most of the home domestic season with injury.

The average age of the squad is just over 24 years, however, the squad have an increasing wealth of experience to draw on - four of the squad have over 100 caps across formats (Delany, Lewis, Prendergast, Paul) and two more (Murray, Hunter) may reach three figures on the tour.

“2025 has been a fantastic year for the squad, newly appointed Head Coach Lloyd Tennant oversaw a successful summer with series‘ wins against Zimbabwe and Pakistan, followed up with progress from the regional T20 World Cup Qualifier winning all six games in the process. The South Africa tour represents a further test of the team’s development and provides great preparation for the all-important T20 World Cup Global Qualifier in January, some fine tuning of game strategy and team composition will be critical objectives for the tour.

“While the tour will be challenging, 11 of the players in this squad were at the T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2023, so they have some familiarity with many of the grounds they will be playing at.

“The return of Aimee Maguire is welcome news to all Irish cricket fans, and to see Georgina Dempsey in action once again is a lift for everyone, it will be great credit to both players resilience that they are back and ready to go.”

Gaby Lewis (captain), Ava Canning, Christina Coulter Reilly, Alana Dalzell, Laura Delany, Amy Hunter, Arlene Kelly, ⁠Louise Little, Aimee Maguire, Jane Maguire, Lara McBride, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, ⁠Orla Prendergast, Rebecca Stokell

Gaby Lewis (captain), Ava Canning, Christina Coulter Reilly, Laura Delany, Georgina Dempsey, Sarah Forbes, Amy Hunter, Arlene Kelly, Aimee Maguire, Jane Maguire, Lara McBride, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, ⁠Orla Prendergast, Rebecca Stokell