When Ireland take the field on Tuesday morning in Dhaka for only their fourth ever Test match it will be their first time in whites for 1,348 days.

The memorable occasion at Lord’s in July 2019 was Ireland’s last multi-day, red-ball game but this time one significant player will be missing – and not because of injury.

Paul Stirling and Cricket Ireland have agreed the vice-captain will sit out the Test match – and the two upcoming in Sri Lanka - to give him ‘rest time’ ahead of a huge summer of white-ball fixtures. Speaking for the first time about the decision, Stirling admitted “it was deeply thought out.”

He continued: “I always sit down around Christmas and look at the year ahead, see where my breaks are and see if I can manage my workload. It’s like trying to foresee the future.

“I saw the schedule of 2023 and it was jam packed and it included a whole new format (Test cricket).

“We are in a different situation from other countries who can virtually pick three different squads for the three different formats but everyone knows we have a small pool of players and if you put that schedule in front of players it is very difficult - and it’s not just the players, it’s the support staff as well.

“My opinion was I was reluctant to pick and choose matches in each format, so I didn’t want to say I’ll give these two ODIs a miss where someone else can play those two and I’ll play the next one because I feel that’s not really my decision.

“That’s up to the selectors and head coach so to take that out of the equation, I said ‘is there a format entirely that we might rest up on and take breaks on’ and I thought that was the best way to go.

“It wasn’t an easy decision by any means but that’s the one we came out with. Knowing how things have panned out over the last number of years you can plan for these things but do they really happen in that exact way, it’s a no, so we are always prepared for that to change or evolve.”

Does that open the door to playing a Test match in Sri Lanka this month or, more likely Lord’s – although that is entirely dependent on Glenn Maxwell’s arrival at Warwickshire.

Stirling is covering for the Australian until he arrives from the Indian Premier League with the final of that competition on May 28, four days before the start of the Test match against England.

He is definitely missing this week’s Test, though, for the simple reason that he and his partner are off on a two-week holiday – to Vietnam.