Van der Merwe back in Netherlands squad for Zimbabwe, South Africa ODIs
Roelof van der Merwe has returned to the Netherlands' ODI squad and is in line to play his first 50-over game for them since November 2021 after being named in a 17-member squad for their ODI tour to Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Netherlands also announced that former South Africa and Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo will be part of the coaching set-up alongside former South Africa international Heino Kuhn. Domingo had resigned from his position as Bangladesh coach in December last year. In addition, head coach Ryan Cook will not be available for the tour to South Africa and Zimbabwe due to commitments at the IPL and will temporarily be replaced by Ryan van Niekerk.
Van der Merwe has played 16 ODIs in all - 13 for South Africa and three for Netherlands - and comes in after a successful T20 World Cup for Netherlands and SA20 in South Africa. Part of the winning Sunrisers Eastern Cape side, the allrounder finished the tournament as the leading wicket-taker with 20 scalps in 10 games and was also player-of-the-match in the final. He has been unavailable for most of their recent ODIs due to his county commitments with Somerset.
Also back in the squad are fast bowlers Brandon Glover, Paul van Meekeren, Fred Klaassen, all of who were missing from Netherlands' last ODI assignment against Pakistan back in August 2022 due to county commitments. Colin Ackermann is also back in the ODI fold, though he will not be available for the matches against South Africa alongside Glover and Bas de Leede due to the start of the county season. In addition, Wesley Barresi and Aryan Dutt will not be playing the ODIs in Zimbabwe.
From the squad that played the three-game ODI series against Pakistan, Logan Van Beek, Tim Pringle and Arnav Jain are missing. Pringle and van Beek are both unavailable due to commitments with their domestic teams in New Zealand.
Netherlands will play three ODIs in Zimbabwe from March 21-25 in Harare before travelling to South Africa for two ODIs which will be played on March 31 and April 2 in Benoni and Johannesburg respectively. All five ODIs will be part of the ODI Super League.
Netherlands squad for ODIs against Zimbabwe and South Africa: Scott Edwards (capt & wk), Colin Ackermann, Musa Ahmad, Shariz Ahmad, Wesley Barresi, Tom Cooper, Aryan Dutt, Brandon Glover, Vivian Kingma, Fred Klaassen, Ryan Klein, Bas de Leede, Roelof van der Merwe, Paul van Meekeren, Teja Nidamanuru, Max O'Dowd, Vikramjit Singh.
*Colin Ackermann, Brandon Glover and Bas de Leede will not available for ODIs against South Africa
*Wesley Barresi and Aryan Dutt will not be playing the ODIs in Zimbabwe