Ireland vs England LIVE: First T20, Malahide, Dublin

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England captain Jacob Bethell: "Just looking at the wicket really. It looks like there's a bit of moisture in it, we've got a lot of seamers and I just want to back them really."

On being England's youngest captain: "I had a couple calls with Baz about potentially doing it. I'm happy to be doing it.

"I'm only taking over for a couple games. The main thing will be to just try and carryon the momentum from the South Africa series and leave them in a better place where than were before."

Ireland 'underprepared' for England T20s - Stirling

Ireland white-ball captain Paul Stirling says the side are "obviously disappointed" by a lack of competitive cricket this summer.

Heinrich Malan's squad welcome England to Dublin this week for what will be their first international fixtures since a loss to West Indies in the same format on 15 June.

Ireland's players faced each other in what was called the Emerald Challenge series this month, and in the Inter-Provincial Cup earlier in the summer, but have completed just three internationals since their series against Zimbabwe in February.

Such has been the break from international action, Stirling said the high-profile fixtures felt more like the start of their winter programme than the end of their summer.

"We've been under-prepared would be the honest answer," he said.

"It's nice to get together as a squad for the first time in about four months. We're looking forward to getting out there and giving it a good go.

"We'll need things to go our way a little bit, but it's nice to get together."

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Jonathan Bradley

BBC Sport NI senior journalist at Malahide

September cricket in Ireland was always likely to make amateur meteorologists of us all but, despite some worries earlier in the week, it's a lovely autumn's afternoon in Dublin today.

It felt like the depths of winter leaving Belfast this morning, but there's some very welcome blue skies here in Malahide.

We'll not say too much about the forecast for Friday and Sunday though!

Good afternoon!

The English international summer might now be over but it's still going strong in Ireland!

We've got the first of three T20s between Ireland and England at Malahide today - and it's something of an historic occasion.

This is the first time these two sides have met in a bilateral T20 series.

It isn't a full-strength England side with captain Harry Brook and the rest of the visitors' all-format players given a breather before a busy winter.

But that gives others a chance to impress - not least stand-in skipper Jacob Bethell.

More on that shortly but for now, let's get out to the toss...

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