Netherlands To Reach India In September To Play Practice Matches

Post the warm-up games in Bangalore, the Netherlands team will be going either to Hyderabad or Thiruvananthapuram for official warm-up matches.

The Netherlands will start their World Cup campaign against Pakistan on October 6.

Source : Twitter/@KNCBcricket

Ahead of the ODI World Cup, the Netherlands cricket team will come to India in the second week of September to participate in a few warm-up matches. However, the details, dates, and venues of the matches have not been announced yet as these practice matches will be taking place ahead of scheduled pre-tournament warm-up games.

“Yes, we will be arriving (in India) a few days earlier and we will play some matches (in Bengaluru) before entering the official warm-up games.

“These matches are important for us because we are yet to play any competitive matches after getting qualified to the World Cup earlier last month,” a Netherlands cricket association (KNCB) official told PTI.

Post the warm-up games in Bangalore, the Netherlands team will be going either to Hyderabad or Thiruvananthapuram for official warm-up matches.

Though, Hyderabad is the desired location for the Dutch team as they will be playing their first two  World Cup matches in the city. The Netherlands will start their World Cup campaign against Pakistan on October 6 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, while on October 9 they will lock horns with New Zealand at the same venue.

Ryan Cook, the head coach of the Dutch team, has requested to provide some games in the sub-continent to get acclimatized to the conditions.

“This is a call-out to anyone who wants to play us. We’d love to have a fixture or two. Our guys have not been to the sub-continent many times before so it would be good to have some fixtures somewhere in the sub-continent as well,” Cook stated post their World Cup entry.

The upcoming ODI World Cup will mark Netherlands’ fifth appearance in the prestigious tournament, the first one since 2011. The ODI World Cup will begin from  October 5 with the match between England and New Zealand. The first semi-final is set to take place on November 15 in Mumbai, followed by the second in Kolkata on the next day.