Head coach Heinrich Malan admits that Ireland’s absence from next month’s World Cup still hurts but the preparation for the next Finals in 2027 starts this week with a three-match one-day international series against England.

Tomorrow’s opening game, at Headingley, is Ireland’s first 50-over cricket since they failed to qualify from the tournament in Zimbabwe in June and although the inquest finally reached board level last week, there has still be no public conclusions released.

“There was no one specific thing about what went wrong or why we did not qualify but it was more about consistency and doing the right things at the right time and it showed, unfortunately, that we didn’t, said Malan at yesterday’s pre-series press conference.

“We are not at the World Cup and that’s something that still hurts, but hopefully we can be smart and clear moving forward and put building blocks in place for 2027.”

Having said that, 10 of the side  that played - and beat - England in the last ODI between the teams behind closed doors in Southampton in the Covid-hit summer of 2020, could be in action again tomorrow with only the retired Kevin O’Brien missing.

“It shows we have played some good cricket in ODIs (over the last three years) but this is that start of a new opportunity and we have to better the stuff in the qualifiers,” added Malan, who refused to call this week’s opposition a ‘B’ line-up, with the hosts resting their entire World Cup squad, with one voluntary exception.

“They are all quality players who have done well in the Hundred and are in form and they have a nice addition in Joe Root who was brought in this morning (to play in the first game only on his home ground) so we are excited to test ourselves in that space and looking forward to playing some good cricket.”

So while the likes of Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook and Mark Wood are all missing, there will be plenty of familiar names in the England side, captained by Zak Crawley with Ben Duckett named as his deputy, the openers in this year’s Lord’s Test against Ireland.