Cricket News India – The Netherlands announces squad for their upcoming ICC World Cup Qualifier 2023. And their key players, Colin Ackermann, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren, and Roelof van der Merwe are not part of the Netherlands squad for the marquee event due to their County Commitments. The marquee event will be played in the June-July window in Zimbabwe when they would be committed to playing for their County Clubs.
Pacers Brandon Glover and Timm Van Der Gugten are also excluded from their 16-member squad whereas Bas De Leede who had qualified as a local player to be on a two-year contract with Durham from February has been included in the squad as his contract had a clause which allows him to take part in the Qualifier 1. Though County Clubs have to allow their players to play for Associate Nations in ICC events, players & boards know that they couldn’t force the Counties to fulfill the criteria as it could result in players losing their county contracts due to their unavailability. In an interview last year, Klaasen had termed this a “tricky situation” since the county deals provide the players with financial security. Meanwhile, Logan van Beek, Clayton Floyd, and Saqib Zulfiqar were also named in the squad while the board has handed 19-year-old Michael Levitt a maiden call-up.
“Coming off the back of a three-game series in Zimbabwe a few months ago, we have been really intentional in our preparation for the qualifiers and we are confident the squad we have picked can play a brand of cricket that will be successful in these conditions,” captain Scott Edwards said. “We have a good mixture of experienced players along with some exciting young players who have performed well in the domestic Pro Series and club season leading into this tournament.”
Let’s have a look at two Groups of ICC World Cup Qualifier 2023:
Group A: Netherlands, Zimbabwe, USA, Nepal & West Indies
Group B: Ireland, Sti Lanka, Scotland, Oman & UAE
Netherlands will play with the other four teams in Group A on June 20, 22, 24, and 26. The top three teams from each group will then move to the Super Six stage where they will face other teams whom they have not met in the Group Stage. Later, the top two teams from the Super Sixes will qualify for the World Cup 2023 to be held in the October-November window.
The Netherlands will march into the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2023 with some valuable experience playing in Zimbabwe as they have toured South Africa & Zimbabwe in March. However, they lost the ODI series against South Africa by 2-0 & then suffered a 2-1 defeat against Zimbabwe.
Netherlands Squad for ICC World Cup Qualifier 2023
Scott Edwards (captain, wk), Max O’Dowd, Logan van Beek, Vikramjit Singh, Aryan Dutt, Vivian Kingma, Bas de Leede, Noah Croes, Ryan Klein, Teja Nidamanuru, Wesley Barresi, Shariz Ahmad, Clayton Floyd, Michael Levitt, Saqib Zulfiqar.
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