Ireland skipper Paul Stirling has been impressed with Ross Adair
Win or lose the final one-day international against South Africa at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Monday, Ireland will look back on 2024 as a year of promise, missed opportunities and poor luck.
With no further matches planned before a month-long tour of Zimbabwe in February, the men’s senior team will sign off their season knowing that a return of six victories from 18 white-ball matches, before Monday, is disappointing.
The highlights of the year were the first Test victory over Afghanistan at the end of February, backed up by a solid four-wicket win against Zimbabwe watched by good crowds in Belfast.
But Cricket Ireland seem to view Test matches — the pinnacle of the game, and the reason they receive five times the funding of Scotland and the Netherlands — as a necessary nuisance, at best.
The focus for several years has been on the shorter forms and while a return of six T20 wins from 14 games may look okay, three of those wins were against non-Test playing countries and Ireland lost all three completed matches at the T20 Word Cup.
The good news is that by promoting fringe players and trying new combinations on this short tour, the coaching team look to have unearthed a couple of gems.
Ross Adair, who had sporadically won eight caps over a couple of years, took his chance to open again with a muscular T20 century, while leg-spinner Gavin Hoey already looks to have his feet under the table after just two games.
Skipper Paul Stirling was particularly impressed with Adair.
“If there’s one thing I know it’s striking a cricket ball — and very, very few players in the world strike it better than Ross,” he said.
Adair was not selected in the ODI squad and is already in Australia where he will spend the next few months playing club cricket in Adelaide.