Gary Wilson has a 100 per cent record as acting Ireland head coach, but if that record is still intact at the end of next week Ireland will have won their first Test match.

Wilson steps into the leading role for the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka which gets under way in Galle on Sunday morning – with Heinrich Malan taking a break back home - but is realistic to accept that the challenge of beating their hosts over five-days will be much tougher than defeating West Indies in two one-day internationals in Jamaica, back in January 2022 when then interim head coach David Ripley went down with Covid.

The encouraging second innings batting performance against Bangladesh in their first Test action since July 2019 sends the squad into next week’s match in good heart but, according to Wilson, this will be a different challenge again.

“Bangladesh have clearly improved over the last 18-24 months and are a very well balanced side but the ball has traditionally spun in Galle early in Test matches, we didn’t get that in Dhaka, it was a good pitch where the bowlers had to work hard for their wickets,” he said.

“So we will have to adapt and assess conditions as best we can, be good enough to think on our feet and react on the first morning.

Significantly, Sri Lanka have brought back Lasith Embuldeniya, their left arm spinner who has taken 71 wickets in 17 Tests and also called up uncapped leg spinner Dushan Hemantha.

“We expect the pitch to be more conducive to spin,” said Wilson. “We haven’t played much first class cricket and while we will never use that as a excuse internally it is a fact and the guys deserve huge credit for the way they went about it (against Bangladesh), albeit we didn’t get the result we wanted in the end.

“They can take a lot of confidence from the way they batted and the way they fought, Scra (Andy McBrine) with the six-for was fantastic and if we can keep going the way we have been going I think we are on good path.

“Undoubtedly there will be bumps on the road but Test match cricket is hard, and to bat through day three from the position we were in at 13 for four, it was so pleasing to see from a coach’s perspective."

Paul Stirling is due in Sri Lanka on Thursday, after his 'rest', and available for the second Test, but although someone will have to make way to accommodate Ireland's leading run-scorer, Wilson is not looking beyond this Test match.

“Let’s get this Test out of the way. Stirlo is happy to bat wherever we need him, we have no fixed mindset at this stage, we’re only focused on this first Test, there is no doubt it will be really, really tough and a different challenge and it would be foolish to start thinking about the Second test at this stage,” he said.

Wilson does admit rotation is likely over the next two Tests, especially in the fast bowling department with the World Cup Super League games following less than a fortnight after the end of the second Test but confirms that “no-one’s spot is cemented, it will always be "performance based”.