Tom Cooper returns as Netherlands announce squad for England ODIs

KNCB announced an 18-member squad for the three-match ODI series against World Champions England, a part of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, scheduled to start on 17th June in Amstelveen. 

Netherlands' international summer kicked off with a three-match ODI series against West Indies last month. They lost the series against West Indies by 0-3 and are now set to host the reigning World Cup champions for three World Cup qualifying matches. 

Speaking on the selected squad for the England ODIs, Netherlands' captain Pieter Seelar said: "After a very competitive series against the West Indies, we take on the reigning world champions England, taking a lot of positives from the matches against the West Indies into the upcoming Series. In saying that, there are also areas we need to improve in order to be as competitive against England."

The 18-member squad also includes Australian-Dutch Tom Cooper, who is making his return to ODI cricket after six long years. He last appeared for the Netherlands during the 2016 T20 World cup. 

Since then, the 35-year-old has been playing professional cricket in Australia, West Indies and England. In 23 appearances for the Netherlands in ODIs, Cooper has scored 976 runs at an impressive average of 48.80

Speaking on Tom Cooper's return for the Netherlands, High-Performance Manager Roland Lefebvre said: "We are very pleased with the arrival of Tom Cooper, who brings with him a huge amount of experience. In recent years, some important players of the Dutch national team have stopped (playing). 

The availability of Dutch players employed by English counties is also limited. The knowledge and experience, but also the mentoring role that Tom will have within the young Dutch national team, is of great value. Tom is available for the rest of the international fixtures."

Shane Snater of Essex and a 19-year-old left-arm spinner, Tim Pringle, who also played for New Zealand U-19s, are added to the squad in the absence of majority of the Dutch county-contracted players as they are busy representing their respective counties in the ongoing T20 Blast. 

Netherlands squad: Pieter Seelaar (captain), Scott Edwards (wicketkeeper), Musa Ahmad, Shariz Ahmad, Logan van Beek, Philippe Boissevain, Tom Cooper, Aryan Dutt, Clayton Floyd, Vivian Kingma, Fred Klaassen, Ryan Klein, Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Max O'Dowd, Tim Pringle, Vikramjit Singh and Shane Snater.