In addition to Root, England will be without the players that defend the World Cup in India for Wednesday’s game at Headingley.

As a result, some have referred to England’s selection as their “B side”.

“You don’t think of any side as a B side,” said the Irish coach.

Several of the players they have in there are players who have done exceptionally well in The Hundred, which has just been completed.

“There are some players in there with some real form, and Joe Root is coming today to play the first game, so we’re looking forward to testing ourselves there.”

Zak Crawley will captain England for the first time, while Warwickshire batter Sam Hain, Surrey wicketkeeper-batsman Jamie Smith and Derbyshire bowler George Scrimshaw are in line to make their debuts. Ireland will play one-day cricket for the first time since their hugely disappointing failure at the World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe three months ago with Saturday’s game at Trent Bridge before next Tuesday’s final match in Bristol.

Ireland’s chances of reaching its first 50-World Cup since 2015 were ended by defeats by Oman, Scotland and Sri Lanka; Andrew Balbirnie stepped down as white-ball captain and Paul Stirling was appointed interim captain.

In the coming weeks, an official review of Ireland’s qualifying campaign in Zimbabwe will be completed.

The [Cricket Ireland] board and decision-makers have obviously been busy preparing for this series, and we will catch up after this series to get some feedback on where we stand, what has been identified, and what we plan to do moving forward,” Malan said.

As a result of Ireland’s non-participation in October and November, the country misses out on the $1m it would have received from the International Cricket Council for qualification to the World Cup.