That game, of course, was paired with two fixtures in the World Cricket League Championship, the competition which is top of the KNCB’s priority list and in which Ireland and Afghanistan do not take part. So the Malahide match is a one-off, and coach Ryan Campbell is using the opportunity to pursue his policy of bringing through younger, as far as possible Dutch-produced, players.
So the overseas-based quartet of Timm van der Gugten, Roelof van der Merwe, Michael Rippon and Paul van Meekeren – the last-named included in the original squad but since withdrawn because of county commitments – will all be missing this week.
Add to that the injuries to Viv Kingma, Pieter Seelaar and Sikander Zulfiqar, and only five of the side which earned that draw in Hong Kong are in Campbell’s thirteen-man squad to play Ireland: skipper Peter Borren, Wesley Barresi, Stef Myburgh, Ben Cooper, and Max O’Dowd.
Four more, indeed, could be making their first-class debut on Tuesday: although Tobias Visée, Fred Klaassen and Saqib and Asad Zulfiqar have all played for the full Dutch side in other formats, none has yet appeared in the Intercontinental Cup.
Two who have but who missed the Hong Kong match are Shane Snater and Quirijn Gunning, who will join Klaassen (called up last week to replace Van Meekeren) and Logan van Beek in a four-man pace attack.
Gunning and Klaassen have proved a potent spearhead for VRA Amsterdam in this season’s Topklasse competition and also bowled well in last week’s three-day regional match, while Van Beek turned in a record-breaking performance in the third one-dayer against the UAE in July. Snater, too, has consistently bowled effectively in this season’s representative matches.
Saqib Zulfiqar’s recent performances with the bat seem virtually certain to have earned him a place in the Dutch top order: his last four Topklasse innings have been 71, 66, 110 and 90, while he also made 24 and 82 not out in the regional three-dayer, an enviable record which confirms the progress he has made.
Whether there is room in the top order for his brother Asad depends on whether Campbell decides to stay with experience, in which case the top five is more likely to be Myburgh, Barresi, Saqib, Ben Cooper and Borren, although in the past Myburgh has sometimes dropped down the order, perhaps creating room for either Asad or Dan ter Braak, the only member of the squad who could be in line to make his first appearance in the full side.
One change which seems pretty certain is that Tobias Visée will be given the keeping duties, having taken over the gloves from Wesley Barresi during the series against the Emiratis.
The spinning duties are most likely to be in the hands of Max O’Dowd, with possible support from Saqib Zulfiqar’s leg breaks.
One thing is absolutely certain: the Dutch will be taking on history in this match. Their predecessors have lost four of the five Intercontinental Cup matches between the two countries, having had the worse of a rain-affected draw in the fifth.
But they will not be daunted by the challenge, and there is every motivation to break that sequence against one of the two Test-countries-in-waiting.