T20 World Cup: Netherlands bring in Saqib Zulfiqar and Kyle Klein as injury replacements

Fred Klaassen and Daniel Doram have been ruled out of the T20 World Cup, and Netherlands have added Kyle Klein, who was the lone travelling reserve, along with Saqib Zulfiqar to the squad as their replacements.

Netherlands are preparing for the upcoming T20 World Cup with a tri-series against Scotland and Ireland, where they have so far beaten Scotland comprehensively and lost to Ireland by one run in a close finish. Doram played both those games, returning 2 for 35 and 2 for 27 respectively, but Klaassen hasn’t featured at all.

Zulfiqar, 27, has so far played six T20Is – to go with 15 ODIs – and has nine wickets at an economy rate of 6.46, while Klein, the 22-year-old right-arm medium pacer, has played just the solitary T20I and two ODIs till date. The T20I was against Nepal earlier this year, where he bowled just one wicketless over and gave away five runs.

Klaassen (Kent) and Bas de Leede (Durham) were the Dutch players allowed to miss the Vitality T20 Blast by their English counties and released for the T20 World Cup, even as the experienced duo of Colin Ackermann (Durham) and Roelof van der Merwe (Somerset) had to stay on with their counties.

Zulfiqar, a legspinning allrounder, last played a T20I in 2019, while Doram, the Leeward Islands left-arm spinner, had earned a call-up to a full Netherlands T20I squad for the first time.

The squad still has a left-arm spinner in Tim Pringle, though.

Of the players who were likely to be picked but weren’t, Brandon Glover wasn’t considered as he continues his comeback after an injury, while Timm van der Gugten is out of action with a calf injury.

Scott Edwards will continue to captain the side, as he did at the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Netherlands have been drawn in Group D of the T20 World Cup, which starts on June 1, alongside Bangladesh, Nepal, South Africa and Sri Lanka, and start with a game against Nepal on June 4 in Dallas.