“The wicket looks good, dry for batting. Different conditions from Asia, but we have done a few practice sessions here. So all good,” Nabi said.
“It is a good surface, and batting first is an advantage, here, but the surface should remain good throughout. The boundaries are smaller here. We need to do our skills well.”
The hosts have had a busy couple of months starting from the two-T20I series against India in late June. They faced New Zealand in a three-match ODI and T20I series before playing South Africa in two T20Is. While Ireland have not managed to win a single game all summer, they ran all three teams close on more occasion than one.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, are on a four-match winning streak in T20Is but lack of match practice might cause them to be a bit rusty.
The weather in Belfast is expected to hold up well with no rain interruptions forecast for the rest of the day.
Ireland: 1 Paul Stirling, 2 Andy Balbirnie (capt), 3 Lorcan Tucker (wk), 4 Harry Tector, 5 Gareth Delany, 6 Curtis Campher, 7 George Dockrell, 8 Mark Adair, 9 Andy McBrine, 10 Barry McCarthy, 11 Josh Little
Afghanistan: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Usman Ghani, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 5 Najibullah Zadran, 6 Mohammad Nabi (capt), 7 Azmatullah Omarzai, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi