GameDay Squad Cricket Match Preview: England come up against Netherlands in the 40th match of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in Pune on the 8th of November.
England played Australia in their seventh match of the CWC, and Australia won by 33 runs. England won the toss and elected to field first. England started well with the ball and had both the Aussie openers back in the pavilion with the score 38/2 in the 6th over. Smith and Labuschagne made the English bowlers work hard for the next wicket as they put on a 75-run partnership. England bowled well at times and managed to bowl Australia all out for 286 in the 50th over. England was off to the worst possible start with the bat and lost Bairstow for a royal golden duck on the first ball of the innings. Root also fell to Starc in the 5th over and England were in early trouble at 19/2. Malan and Stokes showed some fight before Malan was dismissed with the score at 103 in the 23rd over. England continued to lose wickets regularly and ended up being bowled out 253 in the 49th over.
The top performers in GDS for England were.
Chris Woakes – 161 points
Adil Rashid – 97 points
David Willey – 91 points
Moeen Ali – 89 points
Ben Stokes – 80 points
Netherlands played Afghanistan in their seventh match of the CWC, and Afghanistan won by 7 wickets. Netherlands won the toss and elected to bat first. Netherlands weren’t off to the best of starts with the bat as they lost Barresi in the first over. O’Dowd and Ackermann fought back and took the score through to 73 before O’Dowd was run out. Netherlands running between the wickets wasn’t at its finest and they lost another three wickets through run outs as they struggled to 179 all out in the 47th over. Netherlands started ok with the ball and dismissed Gurbaz with the score at 27 in the 6th over. They picked up the wicket of Zadran shortly after but were only able to take one more wicket as Afghanistan made it through to the target of 180 in the 32nd over.
The top performers in GDS for Netherlands were.
Sybrand Engelbrecht – 72 points
Max O’Dowd – 55 points
Logan van Beek – 46 points
Roelof van der Merwe – 42 points
Colin Ackermann – 40 points
Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium & Pitch Information
The pitch in Pune is sometimes regarded as a batter’s paradise. Fast bowlers may see some seam and swing movement to begin with. However, they will need to bowl a good line and length if they are to keep the batsmen in check. There have been three matches played at this ground so far this CWC and two of them have been won by the chasing team. We have seen bowlers take 36 wickets across these matches, 24 to seam and 12 to spin.
England vs Netherlands predicted XIs
England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes/Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Gus Atkinson/Brydon Carse and Adil Rashid
Netherlands: Max O'Dowd, Wesley Barresi, Colin Ackermann, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards, Bas de Leede, Logan van Beek, Roelof van der Merwe, Shariz Ahmad, Aryan Dutt and Paul van Meekeren
Who to play in your GDS starting XI
Batters
The three batters that I am likely going to start will be Dawid Malan, Joe Root and Max O'Dowd. Over the CWC these batters average the following points in GDS.
Dawid Malan – 53 points
Joe Root – 44 points
Max O’Dowd – 18 points
In GDS there are four players combined from England and Netherlands that have the batter position designation. Three of these four players are predicted to play, two from England and one from Netherlands. This is the easiest selection process I’ve been faced with in the CWC as all the predicted to play batters need to start in your GDS squad. If Brook is a late inclusion to the England team, I’ll be bringing him in and dropping O’Dowd.
All-Rounders
The four all-rounders that I am likely going to start will be Chris Woakes, David Willey, Bas de Leede and Logan van Beek. Over the CWC these all-rounders average the following points in GDS.
Chris Woakes – 71 points
David Willey – 93 points
Bas de Leede – 77 points
Logan van Beek – 92 points
In GDS there are fourteen players combined from England and Netherlands that have the all-rounder position designation. Ten of these fourteen players are predicted to play, five from both England and Netherlands. I tend to favour all-rounders that bowl more as they generally score higher due to dot balls being worth one point in GDS. I’m expecting all the suggested all-rounders to bowl more than all the other all-rounders that are predicted to play. Woakes, Willey and van Beek are all locks in my starting XI for this match and I lean towards de Leede being my fourth all-rounder. De Leede has been out of form with the bat and hasn’t scored more than 18 runs since the opening match against Pakistan. He also didn’t bowl in the last match but I put this down to how quickly Afghanistan was able to reach the Dutch target. I believe that because of his last performance, he might fall out of favour with many GDS coaches and become a POD option for this match. He’s taken eleven wickets this tournament at an average of one wicket every 26 deliveries. As I think he offers the highest ceiling out of the remaining all-rounders predicted to play, he will be my fourth all-rounder selected.
If you don’t have the suggested players in your squad, I have ranked the remaining all-rounders for England and Netherlands in the following order. Colin Ackermann, Ben Stokes, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone and Roelof van der Merwe.
Bowlers
The three bowlers that I am likely going to start will be Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid and Aryan Dutt. Over the CWC these bowlers average the following points in GDS.
Gus Atkinson – 112 points
Adil Rashid – 72 points
Aryan Dutt – 83 points
In GDS there are eight players combined from England and Netherlands that have the bowler position designation. Five of these eight players are predicted to play, three from Netherlands and two from England. The pick of these bowlers for me is Dutt. He has been having an outstanding tournament and has picked up eight wickets over the seven matches he has played. Batsmen have found it very difficult to score off him and he averages 3.6 dot balls an over. He can also produce sneaky upside through maidens as he bowled six of them throughout the tournament. Atkinson and Rashid will round out my starting bowlers as I have them both ranked ahead of the other bowlers predicted to play. Atkinson has only played one game in the CWC, and he scored 112 points in GDS. I will mention that in this performance against South Africa, he did score 42 of the 112 points with the bat. I don’t think Rashid’s average in GDS shows how good he’s been from a fantasy point of view in the CWC. He had a couple of low scores in matches where England were blown off the park and didn’t have the opportunity to bowl his full complement of overs. I don’t think England will be blown off the park in this match and I’m expecting him to bowl his ten overs. When he does bowl the ten overs, his average increases by 20 points.
If you don’t have the suggested players in your squad, I have ranked the remaining bowlers for England and Netherlands in the following order. Paul van Meekeren and Shariz Ahmad.
Wicket Keeper
The wicket keeper that I am likely going to start will be Jonny Bairstow. Over the CWC these wicket keepers average the following points in GDS.
Jonny Bairstow – 31 points
Jos Buttler – 34 points
Wesley Barresi – 27 points
Scott Edwards – 54 points
Bairstow has been out of touch with the bat for some time and I believe he has a good chance to be the top scoring keeper in GDS for this match. Bairstow is familiar with the ground and will have fond memories of the three match ODI series he played here against India in 2021. In this series he averaged 73 runs with the bat, including one century. I’m aware this series was two and a half years ago and Bairstow hasn’t scored an ODI century since. However, the other keepers in this match have either been rocks or diamonds throughout the CWC. Out of any of these keepers I believe Bairstow offers the highest ceiling, and he will likely be a great POD if he can put some runs on the board today.
If you don’t have the suggested player in your squad, I have ranked the remaining wicket keepers for England and Netherlands in the following order. Scott Edwards, Jos Buttler and Wesley Barresi.