The Netherlands will start their preparation for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in February in earnest with their first bilateral series in Bangladesh today (August 30).

The three-match series in high-scoring Sylhet will also serve as crucial preparation for Bangladesh for the upcoming Asia Cup in Abu Dhabi next month.

“After qualifying for the World Cup, getting match experience in Asia was one of our first goals. Playing three T20s against a strong side like Bangladesh in their home conditions is perfect for our preparation,” captain Scott Edwards said.

The absentees are different from last month’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifiers at home, which has broadly been the way for the Dutch over the years.

Injuries to Bas de Leede, Michael Levitt, Vivian Kingma, Ryan Klein, Zach Lion-Cachet and Hidde Overdijk has handed Punjab-Ghausia’s all-rounder Sikander Zulfiqar and Hermes DVS bowler Sebastiaan Braat a chance to add to their International caps.

Highly rated 17-year-old batter Cedric de Lange, who also captains the Under-19 team, has earned a maiden senior call-up while left-arm spinner Tim Pringle returns for the first time since the T20 World Cup in June last year.

Vikramjit Singh, who is averaging nearly 47 across his last five T20 matches for VRA and Seafarers in the ProSeries, will return to the top order after being dropped for the Qualifiers.

Roelof van der Merwe and Saqib Zulfiqar were unavailable while Fred Klaassen, who was initially named in the squad, was not released by his county, Kent.

Bangladesh are coming off back-to-back series wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan and the selectors have named a strong 16-member squad which sees a recall for wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan and all-rounder Saif Hassan while leaving out their ODI captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

The Dutch landed in Sylhet on Wednesday (August 27) and had two training sessions despite the rain.

“Bangladesh have played some good cricket recently, but also have shown that they are vulnerable in other series as well,” Dutch head coach Ryan Cook, who also served as Bangladesh’s fielding coach for three years earlier, told a press conference.

“So now we’ve come here confident that we can play a good game of cricket, and we know Bangladesh are going to come with a good style of cricket. They have some very good players, and in their home conditions, they are tough to play against.

Challenge

“It’s going to be a great challenge for our guys. But we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think we could win some games. And if we are drawn in the same groups in the World Cup again, we’d want to try and beat them again.”

The three T20Is scheduled for Aug 30, Sep 1 and 3 start at 2pm CEST and are free to stream on T Sports’ Youtube channel.

Squads:

The Netherlands: Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Teja Nidamanuru, Scott Edwards (c), Noah Croes, Sikander Zulfiqar, Sebastiaan Braat, Kyle Klein, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren, Shariz Ahmad, Ben Fletcher, Daniel Doram, Tim Pringle, Cedric de Lange.

Bangladesh: Litton Kumer Das (Captain), Tanzid Hasan, Parvez Hossain Emon, Saif Hassan, Tawhid Hridoy, Jaker Ali Anik, Shamim Hossain, Quazi Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Shaif Uddin