Heinrich Malan had defended his decision to pick four successive players who learned their cricket in South Africa for their debuts this season – and with Ben Caltiz in the 14-man squad for this weeek’s three-match series against England, it could be five in a row.

After Tim Tector was given a debut in Zimbabwe last February, he was followed by Cade Carmichael, Liam McCarthy, Tom Mayes and Jordan Neill in the one-day international series against West Indies

“Injuries allowed us to expand our squads in the last couple of series. We look at people playing in domestic competition and eligible to play for Ireland which they all are (and ask) have they got the attributes and do they impact the game in how we go about our business. All the people selected have shown that and hence they got the opportunities,” he said.

On Lisburn batter Calitz’s selection, the South African-born head coach added: ”It’s a nice opportunity to showcase his attributes. He is a left hander in the middle order and potentially may come up against a lot of spin. He has a nice power game and hopefully he can contribute from a strike rate perspective and build on the platform our top order gives us.”

Despite playing in the last two T20I series and finishing, by some distance, as the leading run-scoring in this year’s T20 interprovincials, there was no place for Tector, younger brother of leading batter Harry.

“We are comfortable with (Tim) as back up for the top three but with the T20 World Cup in mind we need cover in the middle order plus wicket-keeping cover so  Calitz comes into the mix  and he has shown in the T20 competition he is well capable of that, playing that finisher role and keeping wicket,” said Malan.
The coach was also asked about the impact of Ross Adair, who will continue to open the batting with captain Paul Stirling after serious contributions in his last two games against South Africa and West Indies.

“He plays that aggressive role at the top and get us off to a fast start. He has the licence to go out and express himself, and after scoring 100 and 48 against two quality sides hopefully he can build on that as his career progresses.”

Because of an absence of fixtures and badly timed rain, Ireland have played only four internationals this season, one of which was abandoned, which, Malan explained, is why they opted to go for 50-over matches in this year’s Emerald Challenge, as final match action for a T20 series against England.

“We are trying  to find a balance. We don’t have the amount of cricket we had across the board but we are also working towards the 2027 World Cup. We can’t control the weather but guys with injury concerns came through that to be available for this week against England.

“We always want to play as much cricket as possible, it hasn’t happened this year. All we control is looking forward to this week against a quality side, put our best foot forward and hopefully the weather plays ball. “

The absence of strike bowlers Mark Adair and Josh Little leaves Ireland under-strength in the pace bowling department but Malan is also taking the positive from their absence.

“We will miss our quality players but this gives us a chance to have a look at squad depth and let them get a taste of international cricket. If it doesn’t work out they can go back and work on it. If it does it gives us as healthy competition so we see it as a benefit not a challenge.

And although England are not sending any members of their Test squad to Malahide, it is sure to be the toughest challenge of the summer for this Ireland squad.

–They have a depth of players that is real competitive. There's still plenty of experience with Phil Salt, Josh Buttler and Adil Rashid and then a sprinkling of youngsters who have all shown their worth in the Hundred. We’re under no illusion it’s going to be a quality side, we’ll do our homework and make sure we rock up prepared.”