It’s the time for the festival of one of the traditional style of the games of cricket to happen. The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, the 50-over format, is back after a high end drama at the Lord’s, London which made England champions for the first time in the format. Now, the tournament will be hosted by India and the adrenaline is slowly rising high as the days come closer. Today, we are going to look at the squad preview of one of the high-spirited teams who can cause upset at their day and are raring to go all guns blazing in this World Cup.
Introduction:
The Netherlands, also called the Dutch Cricket team, are coming into this tournament after a cliffhanging, nail-biting performance at the qualifiers held at Zimbabwe during July 2023. They had qualified along with Sri Lanka and are the only associates to be playing this year’s WC. They played the qualifiers without some of their main players in Roelof Van der Merwe, Colin Ackerman, Paul Van Meekeren. They upset West Indies and closed the doors for their qualification albeit a one over eliminator. They then upset Scotland comfortably with star player Bas de Leede taking a 5 wicket haul and scoring a century, one of the rarest feats from the Dutch cricket.
The Dutch announced their squad for the ICC Mens World Cup 2023 on 7th September 2023 with the regulars in Colin Ackerman, Roelof Van der Merwe, Paul van Meekeren returning to the squad. They have also started their training by roping in local bowlers through a selection process and have picked in 4 bowlers to adapt to the conditions in India. The interesting part is that one of the bowlers is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and is a food delivery boy.
The squad picked by the Netherlands is:
Scott Edwards (Capt & WK), Colin Ackermann, Shariz Ahmad, Wesley Barresi, Logan van Beek, Aryan Dutt, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Ryan Klein, Bas de Leede, Paul van Meekeren, Roelof van der Merwe, Teja Nidamanuru, Max O’Dowd, Vikram Singh, Saqib Zulfiqar
Travelling reserves: Noah Croes, Kyle Klein
Travelling with pre camp (from 19th – 28th September):Tim Pringle
Probable playing XI:
Scott Edwards (C & WK), Vikram Singh, Max O’Dowd, Teja Nidamanaru, Wesly Baressi, Colin Ackermann, Roelof Van der Merwe, Paul Van Meekeren, Bas de Leede, Logan van Beek, Ryan Klein/Aryan Dutt
Interesting facts about Netherlands Cricket team:
(*) In 1994 the Netherlands qualified for the 50 over Cricket World Cup for the first time in history. At the CWC in India and Pakistan in 1996 they took on New Zealand, South Africa, England, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Although the team did not win any of these encounters, the Dutch did impress against England (Scored 230 runs from the target of 280 given by England).
(*) Only Wesley Baressi and Van der Merwe are the players in the current players to have played professional cricket in India.
(*) In 2004, the Dutch cricket team began competing in first-class cricket as part of the ICC Intercontinental Cup. Although it achieved little success in the competition as a team, Ryan ten Doeschate set a new competition record individual score of 259 not out.
(*) In 2010, they defeated Bangladesh and qualified for the main Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table. It was the first ever ODI win for Netherlands over a full ICC Member team.
(*) Scott Edwards, the current ODI captain of Netherlands, is the third highest run getter for the Dutch with 1,212 runs at an average of 40.40 and strike rate of 92.73.
Players to watch out for:
Logan Van Beek and Bas de Leede:
The medium pace duo of Bas de Leede and Van Beek would be raring to go and produce the best results when they play together in the WC 2023 at India. Van Beek is the leading wicket taker of the current setup in ODI’s with 34 wickets at an average of 33.41 and economy of 5.29. Bas de Leede has 24 wickets to his name in ODI’s with an average of 32.08 and an economy of 5.94. In the last two ODI series Netherlands played against Pakistan and England, the duo picked up 11 wickets and can turn up at their day in a fierce manner.
Roelof Van der Merwe:
The old horse from the Netherlands team who has previously played for South Africa and is an integral part of many franchises all across the globe, would be the one who would be closely watched. Bringing his experience to the table, he would play an integral role guiding the current setup. Though he had a very short career with ODI, his stats read as: 19 wickets, eco of 4.98 and an average of 36.05.
Fixtures of Netherlands in WC 2023:
6th Oct 2023 – vs Pakistan, Hyderabad
9th Oct 2023 – vs New Zealand, Hyderabad
17th October 2023 – vs South Africa, Dharamsala
21st October 2023 – vs Sri Lanka, Lucknow
25th October 2023 – vs Australia, Delhi
28th October 2023 – vs Bangladesh, Kolkata
3rd November 2023 – vs Afghanistan, Lucknow
8th November 2023 – vs England, Pune
12th November 2023 – vs India, Bangalore
The pitches being played are a mix of sporting wicket, batting friendly and bowling friendly too. One would be raring to watch the Dutch pull out a rabbit out of their hat as they did during the Qualifiers to keep the spirit alive in the WC.
