Attractive left-hand batter Stuart Thompson, who also bowls useful medium pace, impressed in his first game against a Test-playing side, making a run-a-ball 33 and taking 2 for 17 against West Indies in an ODI in February 2014.

Over the summer that year he shone in an ODI series against Scotland, but that was followed by a slump where he made only 24 runs in eight innings in Ireland's run-up to the World Cup - in which he ended up playing four games. In 2016, Thompson took a break from the game to receive treatment for performance anxiety and on his return to the game secured a spot at the Darren Lehmann academy in Adelaide. The next year he was recalled by Ireland and played nine ODIs with not much to show for it.

In May 2018, a timely maiden first-class hundred - 148 for North West Warriors against Leinster Lightning - earned him a spot in Ireland's first Test against Pakistan, in which he made a fifty and took four wickets.