It was teatime in Middlesex's game against Yorkshire at Southgate and I was still batting on 89 not out, so it was hard to refocus after I got out in the middle again. But I soon recovered and quickly regained my concentration.

It was nice to get a big score . . . the timing could not have been better.

Michael Vaughan said, "Well done, see you soon", because he's out of the England squad at the moment, trying to regain his fitness.

And then it was straight out to bat again and I didn't get a chance to ring anyone till the close of play.

It's been great since, I've had loads of text messages and phone calls. I found it hard to sleep on Thursday night thinking about what it all meant. I had to go straight back to the wicket the following morning but I was out to a good ball fairly quickly.

The England team's manager, Phil Neale, was on, telling me about kit and where to meet up today and that sort of thing, but I haven't heard anything from Duncan Fletcher yet. England will be captained by my Middlesex teammate Andrew Strauss which will be great.

We won our match against Yorkshire with a day to spare, which is good. To be honest I think I'll spend most of my day off in bed catching up on my sleep. I'll probably spend the rest of it relaxing with my girlfriend Francesca before I drive down to Southampton today to link up with the team. We fly to Belfast tomorrow, and will spend some time at practice at Stormont in the afternoon before the game on Tuesday.

I hear that I have a fairly good chance of playing. The Middlesex coach John Emburey says that if I get to play I'll be opening the batting, which is really good. I've only started opening this season in onedayers and it's gone well. I did well, too, in the West Indies for England A in March, scoring three 50s in the five internationals I played.

It will be a strange twist of fate . . . that is of course if I'm picked! . . . to play my first game for England against Ireland. I played against the lads recently for Middlesex but there wasn't much banter. My brother Dom played that day and we had a few words but Ireland didn't play very well at Lord's and they were all a bit muted. It would be odd playing against them for England, because I know so many of them so well and played 50 times for Ireland alongside them.

I expect there'll be a bit of banter with the crowd but I enjoy that. There'll be plenty of Joyces there to support me, my sisters Cecilia and Isobel and my dad too. I'm not sure if Mum can make it up but it would be great to have her there.

I've never heard anyone complaining about my declaring for England. I made my mind up on this years ago and the way I see it, I'm an Irishman trying to play test cricket for England because Ireland doesn't play test cricket. I've no problem adding allegiances. Playing English county cricket has enabled me to make a career for myself and the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Geraint Jones . . . though born in different countries . . . have gone on to play for England. I've no problem with that.

I was picked to go on the England A tour to the Windies but I was disappointed with the A tests on that trip. I think I was trying too hard to do well and instead put myself under more pressure. I know that at one stage on the tour it was between me and Owais Shah to fly to India as a replacement but they reckoned I was a bit of an unknown quantity.

My game hasn't changed all that much since I came over here. I just try to be fluent and natural. I play the short ball a lot better, but then I never really got to face them in Ireland.

My ambitions are limitless, and I want to play test cricket. I see this as my best chance of getting into the test side. I need to score some runs if my chance comes . . . and if I do I want to build it.

I'd love to play on Tuesday, but if not there are five games to come against Sri Lanka, the first of which is at Lord's next Saturday. I don't care when it comes . . . any old cap will do me.

Ed Joyce is in the England squad for the one-day international against Ireland at Stormont on Tuesday which is live on BBC2 at 10.45am In conversation with Gerard Siggins