Ireland's Test team carry their own honours board in the dressing room, a unique touch that reminds players of the hard work that brought them here. Their journey in the longest format has been short, but their ambitions stretch far, in both red- and white-ball cricket. On the sidelines of the Bangladesh tour, Ireland head coach Heinrich Malan spoke to Cricbuzz about the challenges of life as a Test nation and the goals they've set heading into the T20 World Cup next year.

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Why do you carry that honours board in the dressing room?

Why do we carry that? Because it shows that our players are good enough to perform on the world stage. And it's a reminder to ourselves that there are people before us that have grafted just as hard as we had to go out there and fight today. It's just a nice reminder in our change room for, you know, what the people before us have done. And if we can add our names to that, then that list will grow, which means we as a team will keep growing too.

Doing well in Test cricket is certainly important for you to promote the format in the Irish board room?

Absolutely. Every single time I've got the opportunity to speak to the board or speak to the CEO or the decision makers in and around cricket in Ireland, you know, I highlight the importance of Test cricket because I think it's the foundation. You know, if you can learn your trade in the red ball space, you can adapt to white ball cricket. And I think, again, you know, it's an entry point for a fair few of our young lads as we've seen in this series. And hopefully it's the foundation that gets laid for them to kick on from here.

Can you tell us about the status of infrastructure development in Irish Cricket?

Yeah, look, you would have seen from an infrastructure point of view that our new stadium has now been approved by the Irish government to be built. Now, unfortunately, you know, these things don't happen overnight, which I wish they did. But the plans have been approved, which has been an arduous process. You know the land obviously in the high performance, the National Performance Center in Dublin. And by 2028, I think, or 2029 you know, hopefully the majority of the groundwork would have been done for competitive games to be start playing. But, I mean, there's so many things that still need to happen, the wickets need to be embedded, which takes a bit of time. You know the facilities to build pitch takes a bit of time. But at least the paperwork's been done.

The groundwork has been done. Do you see that as a significant starting point?

Yeah. The actual work can now start. You know? And I think that's really important and really exciting for us. The sad part of that is that it's not going to happen, you know, overnight. It's gonna take a bit of time. But, like you say, you know, the groundwork's been done. It's now just putting the forks in the ground and actually, you know, spitting soil and starting the actual work of building the facility.

If I ask you to compare your Test squad with the T20 squad, how would you look at how Ireland is shaping in these two very different formats?

No, I think it's two different squads, which is exciting in itself, you know, that we're starting to grow a player base of specialists in both formats, which I think is exciting. You know, I think if I look at the T20 side over the last 12-18 months, you know, we've played a brand of consistent cricket. You know, we qualified outright to go to this World Cup, which is something we haven't done in the past. So, you know, to me that shows that there's real progress in what we were trying to do in that space.

You know, we're coming to the end of a T20 cycle at this World Cup, and you know, we've invested heavily in the players over the last four years that has shown progress in that space, and hopefully, it sets up as a nice opportunity for them to go out there. Hopefully they can go out there, hit the ground running, and you know, perform, and like we've done in the past, you know, in Australia, you know, we beat England at the MCG, and so we've shown, you know, we've beaten the West Indies, we've beaten South Africa, we've beaten Pakistan over the course of the last 12 months, you know, so we've shown that we can do that, and hopefully, this little period leading into and at the World Cup, you know, we can have some of that consistent success.

How has Andrew Balbirnie developed as a Test leader? What was the reasoning behind moving on from him in the T20 setup?

I think it was a good opportunity for us to go the split captaincy route. You know, they bring different dimensions or different ways of doing things, which I think for us is something that we've wanted at that stage. You know, from a batting perspective, we wanted to have a little bit of a change in the way we go at the top of the order with a little bit more of an aggressive approach. You know, Ross Adair came in, scored 100 against South Africa, got 50 odd against the West Indies, but again, he's now injured for this series, which again, you know, he's a big player in the way we want to approach our T20 cricket for us, and we'll definitely miss him, but it gives the opportunity to Tim Tector, who in our domestic competitions has, you know, shot the lights out from a pure numbers perspective, opening the batting and playing really aggressively.

So, you know, hopefully he builds onto that developing of a squad for us. But look, you know, Yeah, Belly's been a fantastic leader in our environment, you know, the way he leads our Test side, you know, he's got a real drive and a real passion to ensure that, you know, that's a part of the legacy that he leaves behind once he, you know, steps away from cricket. And, you know, a lot of our conversation on a daily basis goes, how do we play more red-ball cricket, how do we, you know, compete harder and compete longer so that we can be successful, you know, and I'm sure he's got one or two more things that he wants to tick off over the next couple of years in that space. And, you know, I'm really looking forward to keep working with him in that.

You have got a Euro T20 league. That's still not finalised but when it comes along, wouldn't that give you a huge exposure in the T20s?

Yeah, massively. I mean, that's, again, something that's been spoken about over the last three or four years. Hasn't come to fruition yet, but again, it will create opportunities for more exposure, for players to play. It creates the opportunity for them to go out there and play with different people, gain different understandings of where the game of T20 cricket is at. You know, play with players that will be overseas signings, and big players that come into our environment from a European perspective. So, hopefully that kicks off this year, at the end of our summer. I think it's scheduled in pencil for September somewhere, just post The Hundred, I think. And hopefully it comes to fruition, 'cause it can only be beneficial for us, you know, Scotland and the Netherlands who will all have a stake in it, yeah.

How big are these T20Is vs Bangladesh in the context of building towards that World Cup next year in similar conditions?

Yeah, definitely. You know, we've got this series coming up against Bangladesh. Then we've got, you know, only preparation before we head to the main event, you know. So, these three games for us is really important. And of course it's about winning. It is, you know... every game of cricket we play at the international level is about winning. That's the expectation. But in the same breath for us it's ensuring that, you know, we put a squad out there where all 15 players know what's expected of them. You know, there's clear expectation and trying to support them to go out there and perform to the best of their ability. And, through this series, that's definitely how we'll look at it. And, you know, there might be one or two combinations that we'll test out. But it's definitely the start of a run into, you know, the start of the World Cup, which is in and around that 7th or 8th of February, isn't it?

What is Ireland's biggest challenge at the T20 World Cup?

Yeah, look, I guess the at the T20 World Cup, one of the key things for us, as for all the teams, is trying to get through to the Super 8s. You know, that first and foremost is why we go there is to ensure that, you know, we try and qualify for the Super 8s. All the groups are going to be really competitive. All the groups are going to be really strong. So again, making sure that, you know, the way we kick this T20 campaign off, we're really clear in the expectation that we create around how we want to go about the way that we play cricket, how our players strengths support that, and then creating an environment where they go out there and they can express themselves. You know, I mentioned earlier, part of our job is to make sure that we support our players to go out there and perform on the stage when the lights come on. And if they do that, we know that we'll win cricket games, but they'll also get the recognition and whatever comes with that, whether it's selection at franchises. Yeah, hopefully we can do that.