Ackermann, van Meekeren, van der Merwe return to Netherlands squad for World Cup

Colin Ackermann, Paul van Meekeren and Roelof van der Merwe have returned to Netherlands' squad for the 2023 ODI World Cup. The trio had missed the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe earlier this year because of their county cricket commitments.

South Africa-born batter Sybrand Engelbrecht was also named in the 15-member squad. Engelbrecht, who will turn 35 next week, first came into the limelight for electric fielding for South Africa during the 2008 Under-19 World Cup. He has played 58 List A games, scoring 1275 runs at an average of 45.53 and a strike rate of 78.89, and 54 first-class games and 45 T20s. The last of those matches, on the South African domestic circuit, was in 2016.

From the World Cup Qualifier squad, Michael Levitt, Vivian Kingma and Clayton Floyd were left out, while Noah Croes was named as a travelling reserve, alongside Kyle Klein.

Tim Pringle, who was listed originally to travel with the squad for the pre-tournament camp in Bengaluru between September 19 to 28, has been withdrawn.* "There's actually been a development with Tim Pringle: He's picked up a couple of niggles, so he actually won't be coming to the pre-World Cup camp in Alur," head coach Ryan Cook said. "He's obviously coming back from quite a big operation and we have been tracking his progress." Pringle, 21, who played for Netherlands in the T20 World Cup last year in Australia, last played this March, turning up for Northern Districts in the Plunkett Shield. According to Cook, Pringle had suffered a fracture, but the nature of injury is not known.

Left-arm seamer Fred Klaassen did not make it due to stress fracture. Klassen was also part of the set of players who missed the World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe due to county commitments. Cook said that Klassen's strengths as a new-ball bowler and left-am quick would no doubt be missed in India.

"Fred Klassen's a true performer for the Netherlands. He has shown through all the formats, whether that be one-day cricket or T20 cricket, so he's a big one for us and would've formed a good part of our bowling attack there (in World Cup).

"Obviously, Fred would be gutted to miss out, but it was the right decision taken by himself. It is disappointing to not have him, but I'm pretty confident that most of the bowlers will be able to take up that slack that he probably leaves - his left-arm angle and swing and stuff up front is something that we really enjoy having in our side. Having said that, at the Qualifiers, those guys weren't available either and the bowling attack fared well."

Asked whether it was a risk to include just four fast bowlers in the 15 during a long World Cup, Cook said he was content with the combination.

"Some of the teams are obviously picking different combinations of players in their team," he said. "I think India have also gone with that sort of four seamers plus some allrounders. I don't want to give away too much in terms of what we've got up our sleeve going forward."

Cook also pointed out that it was a "fantastic initiative" by the KNCB to send Croes and Klein as development players, but they were not travelling reserves which would mean they could be drafted in as replacement for any injured player.

Cook added that Netherlands' goal was to make the semi-finals. "Any team that goes to a World Cup is looking to make the next stage of a World Cup, and in this case, that's the semi-finals. So we are obviously looking to try and win as many games as we can to put ourselves in position to compete to get into those semi-finals. I believe that's something that we can do and something that the guys are willing to put the work into to get that outcome."

From the Qualifier tournament held in Zimbabwe in June-July, Netherlands and Sri Lanka were the two teams to make it to the main event, ahead of the likes of West Indies, Ireland and Scotland.

"Naturally, our planning and preparation for the World Cup started soon after our qualification in Zimbabwe," head coach Ryan Cook said. "Having no bilateral fixtures after the qualifiers enabled us to plan for various scenarios for the duration of the summer. Over the past few months the players and staff have been hard at work with the full squad being very dedicated and detailed towards achieving our objective in the World Cup.

"We have an exciting mixture of youth and experience and a unified, cohesive culture which allows those to express their best selves within the group."

Netherlands last played in an ODI World Cup in 2011. Wesley Barresi is the only member of the current squad to have featured in that edition. This will be their fifth appearance in the tournament.

Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Colin Ackermann, Shariz Ahmed, 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