One-off Test: Ireland v New Zealand, Stormont, Wednesday, 11am – Live on TNT Sports 2 and The Irish Cricket Podcast Traditional eyes will wander to Belfast this week, specifically Civil Service Cricket Club on the grounds of Stormont Castle. There, behold a rare sight over the course of four days. Irish cricketers will be wearing whites, hurling a red ball at Kiwi opposition.Ireland have never played a Test match against New Zealand. They don’t play much red ball cricket full stop, this being the first home multiday fixture in two years.The dearth extends down the cricketing pyramid. A rare First Class domestic match took place in Malahide last week, but that was a one-off in preparation for Stormont. In club cricket, the top domestic leagues across the country almost exclusively operate with a white ball and coloured clothing. A sign of the times.If cold-minded and ruthless about the whole thing, it’s all with good reason. That warm-up match last week cost Cricket Ireland in the region of €50,000 over four days. Currently on the outside looking in of the World Test Championship, these matches don’t bring much return in terms of television rights. More generally, Irish cricket’s dwindling public pull means ticket sales are low – the daily capacity at Stormont will be just 1,500.There is talk that, from next year on, Ireland will be included in an expanded World Test Championship. For now, it serves as mere chatter. Irish Tests remain for the dreamers.Yet there is a way in which this Test serves as an important model. With the Black Caps using it as a warm-up for their three-match series in England, eyes across the water are trained on how their future opponents fare. The BBC are flying over a journalist to cover it. If this match garners attention, a precedent can be set for bigger nations stopping over on their way to Blighty.New Zealand's Matt Henry. Photograph: Idrees Mohammed/AFP via Getty Images Ireland’s ability to give them a good game is another matter entirely. One intersquad warm-up last week is scant preparation for Matt Henry with a new red Dukes in hand. Before then, Ireland hadn’t played a red ball match since a two-game series in Bangladesh before Christmas. Competitively, expectations are low.“We’re not ready compared to other Test nations,” said Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie. “You can’t really beat around the bush there. We’ve guys making their First Class debut this week who are going to be arguably playing the Test match next week. That doesn’t happen around the world.“This is our 13th Test match [since gaining Test status in 2017], so they have been spread out, but we will try to go out and play good cricket. And good cricket is good cricket. We’ve done that over the years in ODIs and T20s and in Test matches. So we know how to do it, but certainly playing against a team like this, it’s going to be a big step up and we’ve just got to make sure that we can throw as many punches as we can over four days.”Ireland are set to give out at least two debuts in the format on Wednesday. Tom Mayes has played white ball cricket internationally but is set for a first Test appearance after six wickets in last week’s warm-up.Nineteen-year-old Reuben Wilson, whose father is from New Zealand, is also likely to debut. Spots are available in the Irish seam bowling ranks after injuries to Barry McCarthy (knee), Jordan Neill (side strain) and Josh Little (ribs), but Wilson is nevertheless a young talent who has been earmarked for a senior cap ever since appearing in his first Under-19 World Cup aged just 15.This week is for the romantics, and a young debutant only adds to the general whimsical air. Despite arguments from players and coaches that red ball cricket is the best for developing players, even if they only play white ball internationally, Cricket Ireland has made clear that financial constraints mean they are waiting to see what their World Test Championship involvement will be before strategising for more red ball cricket.Which makes Wednesday’s occasion all the more fleeting. A competitive fixture it may not be, but its success in terms of eyeballs, suggesting there might be a commercial point to all of this, is crucial for those who love the format.SquadsIRELAND: Andrew Balbirnie (capt), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Cade Carmichael, Stephen Doheny, Jake Egan, Matthew Humphreys, Tom Mayes, Andrew McBrine, Liam McCarthy, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wkts), Reuben Wilson, Craig Young.NEW ZEALAND: Tom Latham (capt), Tom Blundell (wkts), Kristian Clarke, Devon Conway, Zak Foulkes, Dean Foxcroft, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O’Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rae, Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Kane Williamson, Will Young.Umpires: Alex Wharf (Eng), Rod Tucker (Aus).