Ryan ten Doeschate comes out of retirement for Netherlands
What's the story?
Netherlands cricketer Ryan ten Doeschate has returned to the national side, Cricket Netherlands have confirmed. 'Tendo', as he is known, will be part of the squad that faces Namibia in the last two matches of the ICC Cricket World League.
In case you didn't know
37-year-old ten Doeschate played what he had then said was to be the final ODI of his career in 2011, where he represented the Netherlands at the ICC Cricket World Cup that year. He scored two centuries in a single edition then, with only Sachin Tendulkar and AB de Villiers matching that feat.
He played his last ever ODI against Ireland in March of 2011.
Although he retired from T20Is the year prior, ten Doeschate was signed by - and excelled - with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2011.
He now returns to international cricket after a 6 year gap from all international forms of the game, bar the IPL.
The details
Doeschate had a strong batting career, and despite a relatively lower number of matches has five ODI centuries to his name, one of them against England. Interestingly, three of his five ODI hundreds have come in a losing cause.
That aside, ten Doeschate has more than proven his mettle with the bat with his big hitting at the World Cup, and subsequently in the Indian Premier League. He remained on the squad for five consecutive seasons before being released from his contract.
This return is likely to have been in the pipeline for some time, giving the player enough time after his significant gap to refresh on his fitness.
Although ten Doeschate has played domestic cricket until 2016 - and was active in county cricket, the level of fitness ODIs demand is a different beast, which lends more credence to the idea that ten Doeschate's return to the one-day side has been long-coming.
Author's Take
It is not clear if he will put his name in the reckoning for the 2018 IPL auctions, but given that he is fit for the ODI squad, it is a possibility. Kolkata Knight Riders won the title in 2014 - with ten Doeschate on that team, but have failed to replicate their success since.
It seems likely that ten Doeschate will - or has already considered - an IPL return; he is a popular figure among Kolkata Knight Riders fans, and the league is perhaps the most lucrative in cricket today.
Team lineup
Netherlands squad: Peter Borren (c), Wesley Barresi, Ben Cooper, Ryan ten Doeschate, Paul van Meekeren, Stephan Myburgh, Max O'Dowd, Scott Edwards, Sikander Zulfiqar, Roelof van der Merwe, Shane Snater, Pieter Seelaar, Timm van der Gugten, Fred Klaassen, Viv Kingma