Paul Stirling will captain Ireland in this week’s T20 series against Bangladesh, which gets under way in Chattogram on Monday morning, after it was announced that Andrew Balbirnie is to be ‘rested’.

Balbirnie struggled for form in last week’s one-day international series which the hosts won 2-0 and were on top in the other game which was rained off without Ireland batting. The captain scored five and six (including seven singles) in his two innings from a total of 30 balls but he will return to lead the side in the Test match between the teams which begins on Tuesday week.

Balbirnie was due to be rested from the one-day internationals in Sri Lanka but they were cancelled by the host board and Ireland are now playing two Test matches instead on that tour which follows on immediately from their games here in Bangladesh.

As a result, it has been decided to give Balbirnie his ‘rest’ this week as he will have to return to lead the Test match team as Stirling heads home at the end of the week for his ‘rest’ ahead of a busy summer of white-ball cricket, starting with the  World Cup Super League games against Bangladesh in Chelmsford from May 9-14.

With his Ireland and franchise commitments, Stirling has not been home since Christmas and in a statement, head coach Heinrich Malan said: “We flagged before the tour there may be an element of player rotation this year due to the anticipated volume of cricket we will be playing. I see it as an essential part of squad and player management that we give our leading players adequate down time for their physical and mental health.”

The T20 internationals all start at 9am GMT and will be played on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The clue that Balbirnie wouldn’t be involved was that he didn’t take part in yesterday afternoon’s practice session, when the other batters all had a hit, although the pace bowlers had a rest as the temperature again exceeded 30 degrees.

All three games start at 2pm, for some reason – all the England T20s this month were played under lights – so it's another advantage for Bangladesh.

 Balbirnie’s absence opens up a spot for Ross Adair at the top of the order, alongside Stirling with Lorcan Tucker expected to continue at No 3, where he has enjoyed success in the shortest format since being promoted last summer. In his last 17 T20Is at first wicket down he is averaging 30 with three half-centuries, two unbeaten.

Malan, however, is “working back” from this summer’s T20 qualifiers in Scotland and he told journalists at the pre-series Press conference yesterday that he is still working through his options.

“We are looking at different combinations to put ourselves in the best position to qualify for the T20 World Cup in 2024 in West Indies and using them as a build-up to the qualifiers in July in Europe so might see him (Adair) in all kinds of positions in these three games,” said the head coach, who will be rotated himself next month. He will not be going to Sri Lanka with Gary Wilson taking over his duties for the Test matches.

When I asked Malan how this week’s squad – with Adair the only newcomer – could be in a good place after Friday’s 10 wickets hammering in the final ODI, he attempted to be upbeat.

 “What happened last week happened last week, we’ll take it in our stride and switch formats and are looking forward playing against a good side in their conditions in a T20 week and build on what we’ve done over a little period in T20 cricket which is shining upwards.

“We were behind the eight-ball (last week), coming out of an indoor school and didn’t adapt to conditions quickly enough. But we’ve been here a couple of weeks now and are excited by the change of scenery and looking forward to kicking off the T20s tomorrow.

“Afghanistan have just beaten Pakistan, in the shorter the format every team is in the game and we have shown we can play good T20 cricket. The boys know what to expect now so hopefully we can go out and put on a good show.”

But with Bangladesh coming off the back of a three-match clean sweep over England in a series which ended just 12 days ago, it looks an impossible task for this under-strength Ireland side, now not only missing their captain but their strike bowler Josh Little.

“Yes, they’ve beaten the world champions recently but we showed at the World Cup we can play a brand that people want to watch. To be tested in these conditions is a nice opportunity for our experienced and young players to figure some stuff out how to play T20 cricket and see that consistency,” added Malan.

“Bangladesh are now a good all-round side, it’s not just about playing spin but they have a quality pace attack after years of work and planning and that is the challenge. Our batters don’t necessarily face 140mph bowlers on the domestic circuit and, at the end of the day, we have to go out there and put our best foot forward.

“The wicket looks a lot flatter than Sylhet (where the ODIs were played) and is rock hard, so it’s going to be tough to keep batters in check, but we’ve spoken how we want to play T20 cricket - we want to throw punches, we want to play an exciting brand of cricket and it’s up to our players to not just talk about but actually go out and do it against a team that can play really good cricket.”