While it would be a stretch to call the tea-growing town a home-from-home for the Belfast man, he has twice represented the local franchise as a T20 opener and has been able to pass on his knowledge of the area to team-mates.
Ireland’s preparations for their first Test in nine months have been minimal — a week at a training camp in Dubai and the four days to acclimatise in Bangladesh — so any extra insights of what to expect are invaluable.
“I’ve played for Sylhet twice but I think this is the sixth or seventh time I’ve been here in all, we seem to keep coming back,” Stirling said.
“From what I’ve seen and can gather, it’s very different to the rest of Bangladesh. It’s very green so we’re pretty comfortable in those surroundings, and it’s definitely the most picturesque of the three cricket centres here.”
Stirling’s first tour with Ireland was to Bangladesh as a teenager in 2008, and he reckons the developing country has come on “leaps and bounds” since then to the point where it’s almost unrecognisable.
“The youngsters in our squad don’t know what they’ve missed,” he chuckled. “The hotel we’re staying in now is brand new, and it’s class, whereas previously — I won’t name names — let’s just say the places we stayed weren’t as good.
“The standards are improving every time we come back and what I like is that the hotels and restaurants are always asking for feedback and wanting to know what they can do better.”
Known for his love of a good curry, Stirling actually nominates Meat Up, a local steakhouse, as his favourite restaurant.
“I took the team out there for a meal the first night we arrived,” he said. “There were about 20 of us and it was excellent.”
‘Excellent’ is probably not a word anyone in the Ireland party would ascribe to the weather in Sylhet which has been hot and kit-drenchingly humid.
“It’s felt a lot hotter than the week we spent in Dubai preparing for this series,” Stirling said.
“We were taken aback by how comfortable we felt in Dubai coming out from Ireland but the first training session we had here in Bangladesh was tough with the humidity attacking the lungs and making everyone a bit tight-chested.”
Stirling has one Test century, scored against Sri Lanka in even hotter conditions in Galle in 2023, and Ireland will need more performances like that if they are to upset the odds and notch a fourth successive win in the longest form of the game.
“I don’t want to jinx myself but I’m feeling good with the bat,” he said. “We had a couple of sessions in the middle in Dubai, in match conditions, and it’s so different to being in the nets back home.
“It generally takes me three whole days of training to feel back at my best and that’s exactly what happened in Dubai. It’s nice to get that rhythm back, and feel balanced at the crease.”
