There is a welcome injection of experience in the Netherlands squad to play a three-match Super League series and one T20 International in New Zealand, starting at the end of March, but coach Ryan Campbell has also maintained his youth policy with the return of left-handed opener Vikram Singh and a possible international debut for leg-spinner Shariz Ahmed, who are 19 and 18 respectively.
They join another teenager in Aryan Dutt, who bowled well in the final match of the Dutch series against Afghanistan in Qatar in January.
The party will be substantially boosted by the return of opener Steph Myburgh, a veteran of 130 games for the national side, and of two New Zealand-based players in Max O’Dowd and Logan van Beek, both of whom were unavailable for the Afghan series.
The trio will give a good deal more weight to the Dutch top and middle order, although that will be balanced to some degree by the absence of Colin Ackermann, whose 81 in the third Afghanistan match demonstrated just how great an asset he can be.
Still, the return of O’Dowd, who has been the mainstay of the Dutch batting for the past couple of years and who recently hit a century for Auckland A, and of the vastly-experienced Myburgh, to join captain Pieter Seelaar and wicketkeeper Scott Edwards, who was outstandingly consistent in Qatar, gives a degree of solidity to a line-up which looked desperately fragile against the Afghans.
Seelaar and Campbell will also be hoping for a greater contribution from Bas de Leede, who has shown flashes of quality with the bat at times but who is apt to become becalmed for long periods, and from Boris Gorlee, who did enough on his first overseas tour to suggest he may grow into a role in the middle order.
The pace attack will be without Viv Kingma, suspended after a ball-tampering incident in Qatar, as well as Shane Snater, Timm van der Gugten and Paul van Meekeren, but will again be spearheaded by the dependable Fred Klaassen, who is likely to relish a return to New Zealand, where he cut his cricketing teeth a decade ago.
He will be joined by Northamptonshire’s Brandon Glover, lively but at times erratic, Van Beek and Ryan Klein, while spin will be provided by the reliable Seelaar, left-armer Clayton Floyd, another who did well on debut in Qatar, and leg-spinner Philippe Boissevain, possibly backed up by young Shariz.
No-one can be under any illusion about the nature of the task against the top-ranked ODI side in the world, but Campbell is looking towards the World T20 qualifier in Zimbabwe in July, and will be hoping that his outfit can be competitive in Napier, Mount Maunganui and Hamilton, as well as building valuable experience.
Squad: Pieter Seelaar (VOC Rotterdam, captain), Logan van Beek (Voorburg and Wellington), Philippe Boissevain (Voorburg), Aryan Dutt (VRA Amsterdam), Scott Edwards (VOC), Clayton Floyd (HCC), Brandon Glover (Northamptonshire), Boris Gorlee (HCC), Fred Klaassen (Kent), Ryan Klein (HBS Craeyenhout), Bas de Leede (Voorburg), Steph Myburgh (Punjab Rotterdam), Max O’Dowd (VOC), Shariz Ahmad (Voorburg), and Vikramjit Singh (VRA).
