Cade Carmichael will look back on his first day of Test cricket with some satisfaction after making a half-century on debut against Bangladesh in Sylhet yesterday but like several Ireland batters he will know he could have done more.

Four of the visiting team passed 40, but none bettered Paul Stirling’s top score of 60 and despite an admirable show of patience on a slow wicket, the Boys in Green won’t be happy to have closed on 270-8.

Skipper Andy Balbirnie has talked about the need to bat the opposition out of contention in Tests and there was a chance to do that after he had won the toss but the Bangladesh bowlers stuck to their task well, making the batters play nearly every ball.

Initial thoughts of a total in excess of 400 had been shelved by tea, but if the last couple of wickets can stagger near or past 300 that might be just about competitive as the home side will have to bat last.

Carmichael found himself facing the fifth ball of the match, after Balbirnie had fallen lbw, and battled his way through the first session, piecing together a partnership of 96 with the more aggressive Stirling.

The 22-year-old had his technique tested by the Bangladesh spinners, and a tendency to play around his front pad kept the bowlers interested as well as providing one of his seven fours with a fast edge between wicketkeeper and slip.

It was a promising innings but if Carmichael, is to enjoy a lengthy run at the top of the Ireland order he surely needs to cut out the reverse sweep which nearly led to his downfall on the stroke of lunch and later saw him balloon a catch to slip on 59 from 129 balls.

By then Ireland had also lost Stirling, caught in the slip cordon after surviving two earlier chances, and Harry Tector who was lbw for a single after a review.

Curtis Campher and Lorcan Tucker dug in and again swung the momentum back to Ireland with a fifth-wicket stand of 53.

Campher brought up the 200 in the 63rd over, with the second of two sixes he swung over the legside but then chased a tempting wide ball from left-arm spinner Hasan Murad and was caught at slip for 44.

The same bowler enticed Tucker down the pitch to be stumped for a patient 41 while Andy McBrine was also stumped, finally losing patience after a painstaking five from 35 balls.

At 222-7, Ireland were in danger of subsiding to fewer than 250, which would almost certainly have been a match-losing score, but their other debutant Jordan Neill batted sensibly for 30 — adding 48 with Barry McCarthy — before he was lbw to the final ball of the 90 overs.