Why are Roelof van der Merwe and Nasum Ahmed not playing in ICC World Cup 2023, match 28 between Netherlands and Bangladesh?

Netherlands take on Bangladesh in the ODI World Cup 2023 on Saturday, October 28 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The two captains - Scott Edwards and Shakib Al Hasan made two changes to their respective playing XIs and two surprising exclusions from either side were Roelof van der Merwe and Nasum Ahmed. Notably, van der Merwe missed out with illness.

Apart from van der Merwe, the Netherlands also benched Teja Nidamanuru to bring the experienced Wesley Barresi and leg-spinner Shariz Ahmad into their playing XI. Barresi, 39, is the oldest player to appear in ODI World Cup 2023. He is the only member of the current side who played in the Netherlands' last appearance in the showpiece event back in 2011.

Meanwhile, the 20-year-old Shariz is making his World Cup debut. Nidamanuru averaged just 13.80 in the five matches he played and his exclusion was justified. 

Bangladesh, on the other hand, dropped Hasan Mahmud alongside Nasum as spin-bowling all-rounder Mahedi Hasan and experienced seamer Taskin Ahmed returned to the side. The former picked up four wickets against England but was dropped for the subsequent matches. His off-spin bowling could be a handful against Netherlands, who have had problems against quality spinners. Taskin can also get some assistance from the Eden Gardens pitch, which generally has something in it for the pacers up front.

What did the captains say at the toss?

Edwards won the toss and opted to bat first as he felt the wicket looked good. He said that his team has played good cricket in the campaign except for the previous game against Australia, which they lost by 309 runs. Shakib, who has played a lot of cricket at Eden Gardens during his time with Kolkata Knight Riders, mentioned the importance of doing well in the PowerPlay while batting as well as bowling.

"We'll have a bat first, wicket looks good. Hopefully, we can score quick. The good thing is it is a quick turnaround, so we need to leave the loss behind. We've set high expectations on ourselves, we need to just focus on the games to come. Barring the last game, we've been playing a lot of good cricket. Two changes - Shariz coming in for Roelof, Barresi comes in for Teja," Edwards said.

Shakib Al Hasan said: "We have to do better with batting and bowling, especially in the powerplay. If we can do that, the momentum will be with us. We've got a lot of Bangladeshis who have travelled across the border, plus in Kolkata we speak the same language, have a similar culture. Two changes - Taskin Ahmed and Mahedi Hasan comes in for Nasum Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud."

Netherlands (Playing XI): Vikramjit Singh, Max ODowd, Wesley Barresi, Colin Ackermann, Scott Edwards(WK/C), Bas de Leede, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Logan van Beek, Shariz Ahmad, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren

Bangladesh (Playing XI): Tanzid Hasan, Litton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan(C), Mushfiqur Rahim(WK), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mahedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam