Balbirnie's Ireland T20 career not over, says Malan

Andrew Balbirnie featured in Ireland's disappointing T20 World Cup campaign in the USA in June which included a shock defeat by Canada

Ireland coach Heinrich Malan says Andrew Balbirnie's T20 career isn't over even though the Test skipper has been left out of the squad for the two-match series against South Africa in Abu Dhabi.

With Balbirnie an absentee though he is in the squad for next week's one-day games against the Proteas, former Ulster rugby player Ross Adair could open Ireland's batting alongside Lorcan Tucker in Friday's series opener.

"I don't think as a nation or a cricket population we are in the position to throw anyone out of the reckoning," said Malan of Balbirnie's T20 future with Ireland.

"We really know what Andrew can do and he's shown over his career that he's pretty consistent."

But with Ireland assured of a place at the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, Malan says now is the time to look at other batting options given Balbirnie's comparatively modest average (23.45) and strike rate (123.23) in the shorter format.

"We challenged him to play a little bit differently and it hasn't necessarily gone 100% to plan for him," added the Ireland coach.

"We've only got 12 or 14 games heading into the next T20 World Cup in 2026, so we can use the front part here to have a couple of experiments around a couple of combinations that obviously build a bit of squad depth but also hopefully add to the way that we want to play our T20 game."

The Ireland coach added that big-hitting Adair, whose brother Mark is also part of the squad, could open the batting or alternatively be used as a "finisher" later in the innings.

"We're looking at the three, four, five order of [Harry] Tector, [Curtis] Campher and [Neil] Rock, so there's a bit of change in personnel from that perspective," added Malan, who confirmed wicketkeeper Tucker will open the batting in Friday's game.

The Abu Dhabi contests will be Ireland's first T20 games since their disappointing World Cup campaign in June in the USA, which included a shock defeat by Canada in addition to more expected losses against India and Pakistan.

Josh Little's Caribbean Premier League commitments with Trinbago Knight Riders mean he is missing the five white-ball contests against South Africa over the next fortnight.

Little has had scant recent competitive activity for the Knight Riders and Malan revealed that the Ireland management have been in touch with the seamer offering their "support" during a mini-lull in his franchise career.

"It's a little period in his career where he's not playing as much as he wants but it allows him to work on his game and hopefully the work he does behind the scenes will come to the fore when he plays for us."

South Africa picked a relatively inexperienced squad for their white-ball contests against Afghanistan and the Irish in Abu Dhabi.

Afghanistan inflicted a couple of heavy defeats on the South Africans in the two opening one-day contest before Rob Walter's side earned a consolation win in the concluding third match on Sunday.

Malan says his native country will "always be competitive" in addition to having the familiarity of playing in the Abu Dhabi heat over the past week.

The Abu Dhabi temperature peaked at 39C on Tuesday, some 24 degrees hotter than when the Ireland players left Dublin.

With Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs both involved, Malan says the South Africans "have still got a pretty strong side" although it nevertheless looks a good chance for Ireland to register a T20 first win over the Proteas after five previous defeats.

The sides will meet again on Sunday before the three-match one-day series begins in Abu Dhabi next Wednesday.