Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie says his side should target a 3-0 win over Afghanistan in the one-day series starting on Thursday which also counts towards World Cup qualification.

“We’re here to get 30 points and if we don’t come away with that, we’ll be disappointed,” said the Irish captain.

“But we’re going to have to do it [play good cricket] for all three games.”

The two teams have met each other on numerous occasions as they progressed over the past decade, with both nations securing Test status in 2017.

One of their most important contests was the straight shootout in March 2018 for a place in the 2019 World Cup, which the Afghans won in Harare.

After beating Pakistan, England and West Indies at successive World Cups from 2007 onwards, missing out on their neighbours’ hosting of the 2019 tournament was a big blow for the Irish.

Balbirnie has referenced that defeat this week and says he is putting a big importance on the Abu Dhabi series, which continues on Sunday and Tuesday.

“Against teams around us in the rankings, you want to get as many points as you can,” he said.

“You want to get 30 points, that’s first and foremost. If it doesn’t go your way, then you start to look at where you get points.”

“If we get 20 points, 10 points or even no points, we’re going to have to deal with that.

“We’ve got a lot of cricket coming up over the next couple of years and this next week is going to be vital in our quest to qualify.”

Afghans beat Irish in warm-up game

Ireland’s scheduled four-match warm-up series against United Arab Emirates was restricted to two matches, which took place 10 days apart because of the hosts’ Covid-19 issues – so the Irish faced Afghanistan in a hurriedly arranged unofficial game last weekend.

Despite being without star spinner Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, another influential slow bowler, the Afghans clinched a 23-run victory after posting a total of 264.

Balbirnie said: “It all happened at the last minute, naturally, because the matches against the UAE were being called off left, right and centre.

“So fortunately Lance Klusener [Afghanistan’s head coach] and Fordie [Graham Ford] came up with the idea of playing a game.

“It was great for us to get a run-out against the team we’re going to be playing over the next week.”

Ireland followed the warm-up game with a 112-run win over UAE on Monday to draw that series 1-1 as Simi Singh followed his crucial innings-steadying knock of 54 with ultimately match-winning bowling figures of 5-10.

The increasingly influential Curtis Campher’s knock of 56 – after Ireland slipped to 10-3 early on – was also vital for the men in green. The South African will hope to continue his superb start to his international career in the series.

In a small change, all three matches will begin at 06:00 GMT (10am local time) because of the risk of early morning fog delaying the start.