In a rare sight in European cricket, the top Associates from the region, Scotland and Netherlands will be in T20I action at the same time in their respective countries against Pakistan and Ireland respectively.
Scotland will be confident heading into the two-match T20I series, following their victory over England in the solitary ODI played on 10th Jun 2018. Craig Wallace replaces Preston Mommsen from the ODI squad and offers an attacking option with the bat. Dylan Budge should get his T20I debut in all possibility and there could be one or two changes in the bowling department.
In all, not many changes will be expected from the playing XI, which competed against England and the focus will once again be on Kyle Coetzer, Calum Macleod and Ritchie Berrington with the bat. Mark Watt and Michael Leask will be spearheading the spin bowling attack with Safyaan Sharif and Alasdair Evans looking set to start with the new ball.
Only possibility of a change could be a straight swap between Chris Sole and Stuart Whittingham (yet to play a T20I).
Netherlands take on Ireland in their first International game post World Cup qualifiers for the National first XI squad under Pieter Seelaar’s captaincy. Ireland too will have a new captain in Gary Wilson, leading them in the T20 format going forward.
While Scotland occupy 11th spot in the ICC MRF Team T20I rankings, Netherlands are currently at 13th spot and Ireland occupy the last spot at 17th. Plenty at stake in these T20I matches for crucial rankings points.
Netherlands will be banking on their young pace bowlers in Fred Klassen and Shane Snater, who recently picked up a 5-wicket haul in a List-A game in England. Seelaar offers the control with spin and is also a very handy contributor with the bat in the middle and final overs. He had a good Pro-series recently with the bat and will look forward to carry the form.
Roelof van der Merwe and Tim van der Gugten will definitely not feature in the first match against Ireland as both are busy in the County Championships game for their respective counties, which ends on 12th Jun 2018. Essex have a Royal London ODI Cup play-off on 14th Jun and Ryan Ten Doeschate being the captain of the side, it’s highly unlikely he’ll take part in both the games on 12th & 13th.
T20I Tri-series Schedule:
12 Jun: Netherlands v Ireland in Rotterdam
13 Jun: Netherlands v Ireland in Rotterdam
16 Jun: Ireland v Scotland in Deventer
17 Jun: Ireland v Scotland in Deventer
19 Jun: Netherlands v Scotland in Amstelveen
20 Jun: Netherlands v Scotland in Amstelveen
Matches to be played on 13th Jun and 17th Jun will be live streamed on the following link.
Impact Players for Fantasy Teams: Paul Stirling (Ireland), Kevin O’Brien (Ireland), Fred Klassen (Netherlands), Pieter Seelaar (Netherlands), Gary Wilson (Ireland), Barry McCarthy (Ireland), Safyaan Sharif (Scotland), Calum Macleod (Scotland), Kyle Coetzer (Scotland), Michael Leask (Scotland), Maxwell O’Dowd (Netherlands), Paul van Meekeren (Netherlands, If available) and Sikandar Zulfiqar (Netherlands).
