Harare, June 16 (IANS) Ahead of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, uncapped Netherlands top-order batter Noah Croes has heaped praise on captain Scott Edwards, calling the wicketkeeper-batter as someone who thinks a lot about the game and is a very good tactician.
Under Edwards’ captaincy, the Netherlands made it to the Super 12 stage of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia last year. The Dutch will now be aiming to be one of top two teams and secure their qualification for the ODI World Cup to be held in India later in the year when they face hosts Zimbabwe in their first Qualifiers group match on June 20.
“The great thing about Scott is he leads by example. He’s got a presence within this group but having played with him and grown up with him, he’s a very deep thinker, he thinks a lot about the game and he’s a very good tactician,” Croes told ICC.
Interestingly, Croes and Edwards played club cricket together in Australia, something which has helped him settle in the Netherlands squad on receiving his first call-up to the side.
“It’s great to play with him again. It would have been six or seven years ago that we were at Richmond, so now, training together, doing drills, it feels like we are back training at Richmond together. He’s grown a lot and is doing a really good job. He’s still Scott to me, he’s not the Dutch captain, it’s really good and he’s facilitated that. He keeps backing me and telling me to keep expressing myself so he’s given me a lot of confidence,” added Croes.
The 23-year-old Croes, who has been playing club cricket for Voorburg in The Hague after being brought up in Melbourne by his Dutch father, further revealed how words from Edwards calmed him on being called up to the Netherlands squad for the qualifiers.
“I reached out to Scott and asked ‘What do you reckon? How is the environment? What do you think, is it worth coming over?’ He said it was a no-brainer and told me to come over and it’s all happened pretty quickly since that chat. I’m back at the same club I was at in 2019, that feels really comfortable and I was able to play some good cricket at the start of the year and I got selected, which is awesome. It was very unexpected,” he said.
“If you’d have asked me three months ago if I was going to be in Zimbabwe, playing the qualifiers, I would have dreamt about it. It’s been a really cool experience so I’m just drinking it all in,” he added.
Though the Netherlands are missing many of their first-choice players due to their county championship and T20 Blast commitments in England, Croes believes they are still a team that can cause some surprises in the competition.
“The vibe within the group and the confidence we have, and the style we want to play, we definitely think will hold up at this tournament. The great thing about the squad is that we are so flexible and a lot of guys play different roles and complement each other. And we have a lot of guys in form,” said Croes.
“Tournaments like this are funny, if you get on a roll, stuff starts to happen so hopefully we can hit our straps come the 20th when we play Zimbabwe and keep the momentum running. We know it’s going to be tough, there are a lot of good cricket teams we are going to play against, but the feeling is really good,” he concluded.
–IANS
nr/ak