“It will be interesting to see how this professionalism in Ireland allows him to get better, how that will hold up over the next few years and what his ceiling is. There is no shortage of where he could end up in the game of cricket.”

It will be a milestone for Stirling on Wednesday as the 34-year-old will make his 400th international appearance.

“I’m very honored – I’m not a big guy when it comes to looking back. I’ll have plenty of time to do that once my career is over, but I’m glad I made it this far.”

“Four hundred is a great achievement. I’ll probably consider it for about ten minutes and then everything will go back to normal.”

Andrew Balbirnie has been ruled out of the T20 tournaments but returns for the one-day matches. Stirling said the former captain was “really excited about the challenge ahead”.

Ireland will be buoyed by Sunday's victory and prepare to face South Africa in the second ODI on Friday before their final game three days later.

“It's a great result for us and we can take a lot of confidence from it. Confidence is huge in cricket, you definitely carry over your performances from previous games into the next ones.”

“South Africa still has a long way to go, the players who have lined up for this ODI series are also very good so we need to be at the top of our game to have a chance at the end.”