The Netherlands will meet Oman, Scotland and Hong Kong in their three Group A pool matches, in which they are ranked first, while hosts UAE and Namibia will complete Group B.
There have been plenty of hard-fought T20 matches between the Dutch, Afghanistan and Ireland, although Peter Borren’s side has recently proved too strong for the Irish, winning their last three encounters. They last met Afghanistan in this format in the World T20 Qualifier, losing by 32 runs.
It was Oman who handed the Netherlands their only other defeat in that tournament, and Borren and his men will doubtless be especially keen to avenge that loss when they meet in the early game at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, 15 January.
They will take on Scotland in the evening match at the same venue two days later, and complete their group programme with their match against Hong Kong in the Dubai International Stadium, again in the later fixture.
The semi-finals and final will be played at the same venue on 20 January.
Group A schedule:
14 January, Scotland vs Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi (14:00 GST, 11:00 CET)
15 January, Netherlands vs Oman, Abu Dhabi (14:00 GST, 11:00 CET)
16 January, Oman vs Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi (19:00 GST, 16:00 CET)
17 January, Netherlands vs Scotland, Abu Dhabi (19:00 GST, 16:00 CET)
18 January, Netherlands vs Hong Kong, Dubai (19:00 GST, 16:00 CET)
19 January, Scotland vs Oman, Dubai (19:00 GST, 16:00 CET)
Netherlands squad:
Peter Borren (VRA, captain), Wesley Barresi (Quick Haag, wicketkeeper), Ben Cooper (Woolpit CC), Timm van der Gugten (Glamorgan), Ahsan Malik Jamil (Dosti), Vivian Kingma (Voorburg), Paul van Meekeren, Roelof van der Merwe (both Somerset), Stephan Myburgh (Hermes-DVS), Max O’Dowd (VRA), Michael Rippon (Woolpit CC), Pieter Seelaar (VOC), Tobias Visée (HBS), Sikander Zulfiqar (ACC).