The fourth tri-series in the current edition of World League 2 gets under way on Sunday, when unbeaten Canada will take on the Netherlands at the Westvliet ground in Voorburg.
Having dealt effectively with the UAE and Scotland in Dubai in March, the Canadians will face rather more familiar conditions in the Netherlands, with the first three matches to be played at Westvliet before the action shifts to the Hazelaarweg in Rotterdam for the second half of the series.
They are bringing a side which is changed little from that which played in the T20 World Cup in June, the significant changes being the inclusion of Harsh Thaker and Rishiv Joshi.
Thaker missed the T20 tournament, but given that in his last two outings in Dubai he posted 111 not out against the hosts, following that up with an unbeaten 105 against the Scots, he is likely to slot right back into the ODI side.
A left-arm fast medium bowler, Joshi has yet to make his one-day debut, although he has appeared seven times in T20Is; the presence of the excellent Kaleem Sana, another left-armer, in the squad, however, is likely to mean that his opportunities are limited.
Canada will field a varied attack, with the seamers Kaleem, Dilon Heyliger and Jeremy Gordon backed up by the slow left-armer Saad Bin Zafar, the off-spinner Pargat Singh and the leg breaks of Junaid Siddiqui, but it is the middle order batting which may cause their opponents more problems, with Nicholas Kirton and Navneet Dhaliwal, not to mention Thaker, capable of making big scores.
They will face a home side which is considerably more experienced, even if it is once again without its county-contracted players.
The Dutch have also lost Sybrand Engelbrecht, who had no sooner established a regular place in the batting line-up than he announced his retirement, but their squad has been augmented by the return of Musa Ahmad and Noah Croes, the latter also providing back-up as keeper for Scott Edwards.
Coach Ryan Cook may, indeed, have some difficulty in working out his optimal top three, with Musa, like Max O’Dowd, Michael Levitt and Vikram Singh, normally opening the batting at club and regional level.
Teja Nidamanuru is unavailable through injury, but with Wesley Barresi also in the squad the Dutch will not be short of batting options.
The only newcomer in the side is bowling allrounder Olivier Elenbaas, who joins a pace unit which includes brothers Ryan and Kyle Klein, selected together for the first time after Ryan’s recovery from injury, and Paul van Meekeren; Ryan’s greatly-improved form with the bat may mean that he slots into the role of the absent Logan van Beek.
Having missed out on the T20 World Cup, wrist spinner Shariz Ahmad makes a return to the squad, as does left-armer Clayton Floyd, joining off-spinner Aryan Dutt in the spin department.
By contrast with their rivals in this series, the United States will be something of an unknown quantity, not only because they have yet to make a start on their campaign, but also because they have chosen a somewhat reconstructed squad.
It includes nine of those who played in the T20 World Cup, but will also feature three debutants – although one of them, Smit Patel, has a previous career with Indian state side Gujarat behind him.
Other new faces are Juanoy Drysdale and U19 World Cup standout Utkarsh Srivastava, but there is also a return for Abhishek Paradkar, Yasir Mohammad and Saiteja Mukkamalla, the last still only 20 but with 17 ODIs to his credit, and a knock of 120 not out against the UAE in last year’s World Cup Qualifier to attest to his batting skills.
The Americans will miss the experience of Saurabh Netravalkar and the pace of Ali Khan, but the batting line-up, led by captain Monank Patel and including the seasoned Aaron Jones and Steven Taylor is capable of generating plenty of runs.
South African-born Shadley van Schalkwyk is another who has yet to play in an ODI, but he has lots of List A (and indeed, first-class) experience with a range of teams in South Africa, and he is likely to play a key role in an attack which is otherwise stronger on spin than pace.
The slower options include left-armers Nostusha Kenjige and Harmeet Singh Baddhan, the leg-spin of Yasir Mohammad and Srivastava’s off-breaks.
With the top four sides from League 2 advancing to the 2026 World Cup Qualifier and the remaining sides having to go through a play-off, points will be at a premium here and indeed at every subsequent tournament, and the Dutch, having garnered just four from a possible eight points in Nepal in February, will be keen to extract maximum home advantage this time.
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