IRELAND have already put away their summer wardrobe and are getting ready for winter in Malahide this week.

The summer of ’25 may have been one of the better ones in this country, weather-wise, but the top cricketers spent most of it kicking their heels or playing a handful of games for club and province.

Skipper Paul Stirling is certainly trying to put it behind him: ‘it feels like the beginning of our winter program rather than the end of our summer program. That's the stage we're at. Certainly, it feels like the start of something rather than the end.’

So frustrated – and angry – are some of the players that they have been explicitly critical of their overlords on social media, but today that will be put aside as they take to the field after a 97-day hiatus.

The 4,600 capacity pop-up stadium is back in Malahide, albeit at half the height of recent big games which may be a blessing given the strong winds that buffeted the village yesterday.

The weather forecast is not as bad as it appeared last week, and the Cricket Ireland staff were going about their work yesterday with fingers crossed.

But a Daily Mail Sport survey of Ireland home games since 1855 shows that late September is as good a time as any to stage fixtures.

Fifteen games have been staged between September 17th and the end of the month, most recently in 2019, and NOT ONE has been lost to weather.

Bizarrely, back in 1861 they even organised a two-day match in Dublin on 7-8th October! That was staged in the Coburg Gardens, on the site of the Dublin Exhibition Palace and more recently – as the Iveagh Gardens – the venue for Van Morrison, Supergrass and a comedy festival.

I’m not sure how many laughs there will be at Malahide this week, but an undercooked Ireland side and an England one in high-gear after smashing the 300-barrier five days ago is not a recipe for chuckles for home supporters.

Ireland go into the series without their two leading bowlers, Mark Adair and Josh Little, and with most of the rest of the attack having battled injury this summer.

There are concerns, too, at some of the replacements brought in, with Leinster supporters livid at what they perceive as a slight against their favourites.

Despite Leinster winning all round them for years at interpro level, their representation in the national squad does not reflect that. Players such as Gavin Hoey, Tim Tector and John McNally have failed to get a look in while lesser performers elsewhere are called up.

Worst of all, perhaps, Clontarf’s David Delany has been shunned again as back-up all-rounder in favour of Jordan Neill, a player who has bowled just four overs in professional T20 in his career. Delany has had his issues with the Irish hierarchy but on the field, he has turned his career around and had stellar displays all summer.

England’s 2005 Ashes win was driven by Duncan Fletcher, a coach who refused to abandon players who were deemed ‘awkward’ or ‘difficult’, an attitude that Irish selectors seem afraid to adopt.

It’s not as if they don’t like to take chances, with the latest rookie in line for a cap being Canadian-born Ben Calitz whose left-handedness fills an aching hole in the middle order.

The 21-year-old has impressed Stirling: ‘He’s a really exciting young cricketer. He is a keeper option, but I think the striking thing about him is how powerful he hits the ball.

‘He's hitting sixes in any ground in any conditions, and that was what sort of sort of opened our eyes. Certainly, the head coach and myself, the way he was playing spin, how far he could hit the ball, and also being a left hander.’

Stirling also hopes the conditions could work in Ireland’s favour: ‘Hopefully, it'll be a bit different than Old Trafford where the pitch didn't seem to be doing much. And it might be a bit slower, might do a little bit more.

‘Hopefully, we can catch a team off guard that way if things go our way. Anytime we've done well on our own shores is when we catch a team off guard fractionally either with the pace of the wicket or just the length that we’re bowling.

‘We need to be right at our best first ball.’

Talking of first ball, Stirling is expected to entrust the opening over to left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys. The experiment has borne fruit, with the Trinity student’s four overs against West Indies at Bready in June costing 16 while his teammates all went for more than 50.

It’s early in his career, but only six full-member bowlers have been more economical than the Lisburn man in T20s, and all fellow-spinners, legends all – Daniel Vettori, Sunil Narine, Rashid Khan, Samuel Badree, Imad Wasim and Harbhajan Singh.

Humphreys has a chance to set the tone today, and get Ireland’s winter program off with a bang.