Ireland will play their first match in Australia tomorrow (TUES 3am) ahead of the T20 World Cup. but they will be without Paul Stirling and Harry Tector.

While 13 of the squad flew out of Dublin last Thursday, Stirling and Tector faced the almost 10,000 miles journey across the International Date Line from Guyana after completing their stint in the Caribbean Premier League.

They are not due to arrive until tomorrow so will sit out the first two games, at least, against their host club in Sydney, a Randwick Petersham XI and on Wednesday against a Sydney Cricket Ground XI.

The final practice game, before they move onto Melbourne for two official warm-up games, is on Friday, against a New South Wales XI. All this week’s games have lunchtime starts (3am BST) and will be live-streamed.

All 13 players had their first batting session yesterday, but the bowlers were given the extra day to recover and will have their first serious session today.

Meanwhile, CIYMS have moved quickly to replace Nigel Jones after their captain confirmed he was joining new Premier League champions Lisburn next season.

Tyron Koen, the South African all-rounder who has been playing for Ardmore since his arrival in Northern Ireland in 2021, is reunited with his close friend and CI professional Keith Dudgeon. Koen will play as a local as he and his partner are now living here.

In his two seasons for Ardmore he took 67 wickets at 14 runs apiece and scored almost 1,000 runs.