Win or lose the series decider in Chattogram on Tuesday afternoon, Ireland will fly home from Bangladesh with several questions answered and in good shape just over two months from the start of their T20 World Cup campaign.

A resounding victory over the home side on Thursday followed by a narrow six-wicket defeat on Saturday will have provided coach Heinrich Malan with further evidence of his team’s strengths and weaknesses. 

Tim Tector grabbed his chance at the top of the order, scoring 32 and 38 at a rapid rate, and looking so comfortable as skipper Paul Stirling’s opening partner that the Ireland selectors have a choice to make that wasn’t there a week ago.

Ross Adair was inked in the open in the World Cup after his century against South Africa last year — and probably still will — but Tector is now a proven substitute for the injured Belfast man, and must be in the squad.

Left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys has been another big plus in the two games — taking a career-best 4-13 in the first — and seeming to revel in the responsibility of bowling the tone-setting first over.

If there is a concern in the attack, it’s the form of Josh Little. The superstar left-arm quick is a match-winner but has not been quite the same bowler for Ireland since earning an Indian Premier League contract on the back of his performances at the 2022 T20 World Cup.

On Saturday when the Boys in Green were striving to defend a modest 170-6, Little’s first over — the last of the powerplay —disappeared for 18 runs. 

The preference of Malan and presumably Stirling to use the minimum of five bowlers where possible does not help.

An option would be to use batting all-rounder Curtis Campher for one of the powerplay overs, giving the skipper a bit of wriggle room if Little or leg-spinner Gareth Delany — who took an excellent 2-28 on Saturday — has an off day.

Campher could equally go for 18 in the powerplay, but better your sixth bowler be hammered and save Little for later as he showed with his next 2.4 overs only conceding 21 as Bangladesh squeezed home with four wickets and two balls to spare.

So allowing for injuries, expect the Ireland line-up for their first World Cup encounter against Sri Lanka in Colombo on February 8 to look like this:

Stirling, Ross Adair/Tim Tector, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Campher, George Dockrell, Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Little, Humphreys