County commitments force Ackermann and van der Merwe to miss T20 World Cup

Netherlands will be without the experienced pair of Colin Ackermann and Roelof van der Merwe at the T20 World Cup 2024. The two of them made themselves unavailable for selection, choosing to fulfil their county commitments instead.

Netherlands have called up Daniel Doram, the Leeward Islands left-arm spinner, to a full T20I squad for the first time.

The T20 World Cup clashes with the start of the Vitality Blast, England's county T20 competition, which has forced Associate players to choose between their primary employers and their national teams.

Bas de Leede (Durham) and Fred Klaassen (Kent) will be released by their counties for the T20 World Cup, but ESPNcricinfo understands that Ackermann and van der Merwe have committed to Durham and Somerset respectively. Neither was named in the Netherlands' provisional squad on Monday.

Brandon Glover, meanwhile, wasn't considered as he continued his comeback after an injury, while Timm van der Gugten is out of action with a calf injury.

In van der Merwe's absence, Doram has been named as one of two left-arm spinners in the squad along with Tim Pringle. He is a Dutch passport-holder from Saint Maarten, a constituent state of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and played first-class and List A cricket for Netherlands as a teenager.

Doram, who is 6' 7" tall, has been playing for Leeward Islands in the West Indies Championship and picked up 29 wickets at 20.27 this season. He has never played a professional T20 match but was on standby when Netherlands toured Nepal earlier this year.

"We have been able to select a well-balanced team, which we are confident will be able to perform in the conditions against the opposition we face in the US and West Indies," Ryan Cook, the Netherlands head coach, said in a release. "All of the players have been training well and have been involved in the recent ProSeries with some exciting performances showing the growing depth and quality in Netherlands cricket.

"We have managed to perform admirably in the last two World Cups we have participated in and will be determined to rise to the challenges we face ahead to reach the next round of the tournament."

Scott Edwards will to captain the side, as he did at the 2022 T20 World Cup, and there are several changes to the squad that finished fourth in their Super 12s group in that tournament. Shariz Ahmad, Tom Cooper, Stephen Myburgh, Ackermann, van der Merwe, Glover and van der Gugten are out; Wesley Barresi, Aryan Dutt, Michael Levitt, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Vivian Kingma and Doram have come in.

Netherlands will prepare for the tournament with a tri-series against Scotland and Ireland, which starts on Saturday. They have been drawn in Group D of the T20 World Cup alongside Bangladesh, Nepal, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Netherlands provisional squad for the T20 World Cup:

Aryan Dutt, Bas de Leede, Daniel Doram, Fred Klaassen, Logan van Beek, Max O'Dowd, Michael Levitt, Paul van Meekeren, Scott Edwards (capt/wk), Sybrand Engelbrecht, Teja Nidamanuru, Tim Pringle, Vikramjit Singh, Vivian Kingma, Wesley BarresiTravelling reserve: Kyle Klein