The ongoing series between the Netherlands and Ireland, the first the Dutch have played in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, have been a long time coming. The Netherlands' debut in the 13-team league, the first three of 24 ODIs against Full Member opposition as the sole Associate representative at the top level of ICC ODI competition, is the culmination of a three-year campaign that began at World Cricket League Division 2 in Namibia in early 2015 and ended at the ICC Academy Ground at Dubai in December of 2017, where the Dutch clinched the World Cricket League Championship and earned their place in the Super League. Since then they have had three more years to prepare, one more than anticipated, for their entry into the competition against old rivals Ireland in one of the series they were targeting in their pursuit of the half dozen or more wins they'll likely need to avoid the risk of relegation.

Since December 2017 this series is what the Dutch have been building toward, yet when they took the field against the Irish at Utrecht on Wednesday for the first ODI, the team that donned the orange for the Netherlands was markedly understrength. Weaker, in fact, than the one they fielded for those final matches in the WCL Championship.