Ireland v England: Hosts ‘underprepared’ for T20 series after lack of summer cricket says skipper Paul Stirling

England have travelled without their all-format players currently building towards the winter’s Ashes series, including usual ODI and T20 captain Harry Brook.

In his stead, 21-year-old Jacob Bethell will become the youngest man to captain an England international side.

The toss in Malahide, however, will not be Stirling’s first meeting with the exciting all-rounder. The pair were team-mates at Warwickshire and opened the batting together for Birmingham Bears in the T20 Blast during 2022.

“I rocked up to one of the outgrounds for Warwickshire when I was playing my first game for them the next day,” Stirling recalled.

“Jacob Bethell got me out first ball off the train, so that was my first experience of him. He was a superstar, you could see the talent there.

“His ball-striking was so noticeable, it was world class already. To see where he’s got to already is no surprise to me.”

Ireland’s bowling attack will be without Josh Little, Mark Adair and Fionn Hand but are otherwise at full strength.

While England’s squad, which will be led by assistant coach Marcus Trescothick, is much changed from that which faced South Africa last week, Stirling is not expecting the challenge facing Ireland to be lessened.

“Sometimes you see the squad being announced and you can have the take that it’s understrength, but that’s not how I see it,” he added.

“I see 15 extremely talented cricketers all wanting to put their hand up and get to the T20 World Cup.

“Those teams that come to Ireland are hungrier possibly than the first-team.”