Ian Callender in Brisbane

GARY Wilson gave up the chance to retain the captaincy of Surrey because he did not want to miss an Ireland match.

It was on his first day in Sydney, in Ireland's build-up to their third World Cup campaign, that Gareth Batty was confirmed Surrey captain in succession to Wilson, but Ireland's wicket-keeper batsman was not surprised.

“Alex Stewart (Surrey's Director of Cricket) rang me to say they wanted consistency and give the captaincy to someone whose sole focus was on Surrey and I couldn't give that at this time - which is completely understandable.

“I would have loved to have been club captain but was not prepared to stand down from any format of the game for Ireland to throw my name into the hat. They assumed I was making myself available for everything for Ireland which is what I am 100 per cent doing.

“The Intercontinental Cup is now a mandatory release because it is a qualification tournament (for Test cricket) and along with the World T20 qualifying and the ODIs against England and Australia it is going to be a pretty busy summer. I think I would have been missing 13 or 14 Surrey games,” said Wilson.

When Ireland beat West Indies last Monday in their World Cup opener, it confirmed that this Ireland team is somewhere near the top of their game and the future is exciting. For Wilson it was an easy decision to make.

“We've had some very good wins in the past but have never dominated a top eight side like that before. They were on top for only 15 overs, otherwise we were in absolute control all the time. It was, in my opinion, our most complete performance.”

It doesn't release the pressure, especially with the UAE next up on Wednesday in Brisbane, the one team they are seeded to beat in the tournament.

“Complacency is a danger but it now becomes our biggest game of the World Cup. The West Indies was our biggest game, now that is out of the way, and if we are lucky enough to beat the UAE, the next game will be the biggest and so on. We're just taking it day by day, there is a really good mood in the camp, even with the weather around Brisbane (36 hours of constant rain forced the abandonment of yesterday's game between Australia and Bangladesh).

“The UAE have a couple of new players but we know if we play our best cricket we will beat them. We are just focused on our own game and we have so many guys who are playing well at the minute and our bowling has been excellent as well in the last couple of games.”

Wilson has a great record against UAE - he averages 109, with the help of six not outs - and hopes the opposition will inspire him to end his own poor run of form which has yielded just 99 runs in seven innings this year.

“All I can do is keep working hard in the nets. History suggests I usually come out the other side. I'm not panicking, I just have to strip things back and go back to basics.”