Opening batsman Nick Statham was a last-minute withdrawal from the Dutch squad for this weekend’s matches against Derbyshire and Northamptonshire, when he decided on Saturday that a wrist injury sustained last November, which has been causing him considerable inconvenience this season, had become too severe for him to make the trip.

Statham, who began the Topklasse programme with a century and a fifty, has struggled so far in the Clydesdale Bank 40 League, and was in danger of losing his place to Tom de Grooth.

It now seems virtually certain that De Grooth will be in the side to play Derbyshire at Derby on Sunday.

The selectors have called up 18-year-old Warwickshire Academy allrounder Tim Gruijters, who was also in the party which took part in the World Twenty20 qualifier in Dubai and the subsequent visit to Kenya, making his ODI debut in Nairobi on 16 February. Since returning to England Gruijters has been suffering from a back injury, and if he plays this weekend it will be purely as a batsman.

It is understood that Derek de Boorder and Daan van Bunge were also approached, but neither was available to step in at such short notice.