Ireland coach expects to face ‘quality’ England

Ireland v England, three-match T20 series

Venue: Malahide, County Dublin Dates: 17, 19 and 21 September Start time: 13:30 BST

Ireland coach Heinrich Malan expects his side to face a formidable challenge against England in the forthcoming three-match T20 series between the teams, despite the visitors selecting a largely understrength squad for the games at Malahide.

England have opted to rest white-ball captain Harry Brook and other all-format players before this winter’s Ashes series.

Jacob Bethnell, 21, will become the youngest man to captain England in an international, with Jordan Cox being rewarded for his outstanding form in The Hundred with a call-up.

The fixtures will represent the first time the sides have met in the T20 format of the game in Ireland, with the first encounter being played on Wednesday, 17 September, followed by further matches on Friday and Sunday.

The teams have played twice in T20 internationals before, with their 2010 meeting ending as a no result and Ireland winning by five runs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method at the T20 World Cup in Melbourne in 2022.

“We obviously don’t have anything to do with who they select; they have a depth of player that is really competitive. They’ve still got lots of good players, lots of quality,” said Malan.

“There’s still some experience within their squad and a sprinkle of some youth who have all shown their worth in The Hundred so we’re under no illusions that it’s going to be a quality side and we have to make sure we do our homework and rock up prepared.

“We look at their squad and we plan accordingly.”

England are coming off the back of a drawn T20 series against South Africa while in contrast Ireland have not been in action since losing their series against West Indies over the same format 1-0 in June, with two games abandoned.

“We’ve worked really hard in the background, working away at our skill level, there’s been a bit of domestic cricket in there too,” explained the Ireland coach of the activity over the past three months.

“Hopefully we can get three good games of cricket against England and put our best foot forward.

Wicketkeeper Ben Calitz has been called up to the senior Ireland squad for the first time for the three matches with England.

“From our point of view, we look at people who are playing in domestic competition and are eligible to play for Ireland, have they got the attributes and performances, can they impact the game in how we want to go about our game from a T20 perspective,” explained Ireland coach Malan.

“It’s a nice opportunity for Ben to showcase some of the attributes that we’ve seen from him in the domestic game as a left-hander.

“With us potentially facing a lot of spin, he has got a nice power game and hopefully he can contribute from a strike rate perspective and be in a position to build on the platform that the top-order batsmen put in place for us.”

Ireland are without bowling trio Mark Adair, Fionn Hand and Josh Little, but Malan believes this offers up a chance for others in the squad to impress.

“It’s never ideal when you’re missing some of your quality players, but it certainly opens up an opportunity to build a bit of squad depth and ensure that the players who come in get a feel for the experience of international cricket.

“If things don’t work out hopefully they pick up a couple of areas that they can go back and work on and if things do work out, we’ve got some nice competitiveness within our squad.

“Healthy competition for places is one of the key areas we have been working on. We see it as a benefit, not necessarily as a challenge.”

Ireland opener Ross Adair is set to face England for the first time and the hosts will hope he can deliver again after contributing a quickfire century against South Africa in T20 format and 48 against the West Indies earlier this summer.

“He plays that aggressive role for us at the top and tries to get us off to some really fast starts. He’s definitely got that licence from us to go out there and express himself,” Malan added.

“He’s managed to do that in those two innings against quality sides and hopefully that’s the foundation he can build on as his career goes on.”

Malan says the Irish squad is looking forward to playing at the County Dublin venue.

“We haven’t played at Malahide for a little period but when we played India there, when we played New Zealand there in the last couple of years, it’s always buzzing, there’s always a nice atmosphere,” he said.