Batting for Ireland with brother ‘a privilege’

Tim Tector, the brother of Heinrich Malan’s team’s starting pitcher, describes it as an “unbelievable privilege” as they try to make history in their crucial T20 international against Bangladesh on Tuesday.

With a victory for Ireland, they would become the first Irish men’s team to defeat an Asian Full Member in a series and gain some momentum as they prepare for the 2026 T20 World Cup in February.

Harry Tector and his younger brother joined the team for the three T20I matches that followed, losing both of their November Test matches to the Bangladeshis.

Harry finished third in the batting order, ending unbeaten on 69 and Tim contributing 39, and Ireland won the first of those matches with 39 runs.

As Bangladesh won the second game by four wickets on Saturday, Tim scored 38 and Harry 11-11.

“It’s obviously very cool playing baseball with Harry.” It didn’t feel that different batting with him because we’ve done it for a while in our home and club stuff,” Tim said.

“It’s obvious that this is a slightly bigger occasion, but I do know it’s a privilege to play on the same international team,” he said.

The Tectors’ love of cricket is so strong that other players have also played the sport.

It’s truly a family affair. At a World Cup, our older brother Jack was the Under-19s’ captain, which I believe happened in Bangladesh.

Harry and our father both performed the same, and I did the same. Alice, our youngest sister, has also joined the women’s team.

The first two meetings between the teams were night games, but Tuesday’s game will be a day game.

The younger Tector brothers remarked, “We’ll have to wait and see,” but the pitch might be a little drier without the dew.

“I’ve got a couple of starts coming up, and I’ve obviously been disappointed,” he said. “I don’t mind if I’m going to get out while looking to keep that momentum moving outside the powerplay, rather than bat for a score.

For me, the key to success with powerplay batting is to “take the game to the bowlers.” I enjoy lattice moving because it allows me to access various areas of the ground and keeps my body moving.

“It’s more about knowing what I’m trying to do and being both confident and informed about what that is,” says the author.

Heinrich Malan, Ireland’s head coach, acknowledged that the Tector brothers were “two big players” in the squad.

“Hopefully they can go out there and continue to honor themselves and their families and advance our team,” said Malan.

The Ireland coach said that despite “some real progress over the last two games,” there were still some areas where improvement could be made.

We made it clear that this series was a part of our T20 World Cup preparation when we first started this series. He said, “We haven’t had the amount of cricket we would have desired throughout the year, but that’s in the past.”

“We’re just focusing on where we’re at right now.” The quality of the thought and process that we put into the first two games really shined in the results.