ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 26, 2022

Scott Edwards

Sydney Cricket Ground

Netherlands

Post Match Media Conference

Q. I saw Max O'Dowd tweeted yesterday that picture of his diary with this map sort of penciled into it. Are you able to give yourselves a moment to just reflect on what playing India at SCG in a World Cup is going to mean?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Yeah, it's huge. You always dream of playing World Cups, and SCG is one of the most famous grounds in the world. And then add in you're playing against arguably one of the best teams in the world, yes, it's pretty surreal. The boys are looking forward to it.

Q. These opportunities to play the very big teams, the Indias, Englands, the ODI Super League gave you a bit more of an opportunity. That's now not going to be a thing in the future schedule, are you concerned playing these guys, these opportunities might not come around in the future outside of tournaments like this?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Yes, obviously disappointing that the ODI Super League is not going ahead. It was a great experience for all of our players. Obviously going forward there's obviously more teams going to the World Cups in the future, which is great. But you've got to qualify for those events, which is always tough.

It's a bit disappointing, but we're here now and we get to play another four, five, however many games, in the World Cup, which we're looking forward to.

Q. Have you planned for this game any differently than you would any other game?

SCOTT EDWARDS: No, not really. I think you're playing against the team you're playing against. You do your analyses. You prepare how you prepare against any teams. It's obviously a high-quality unit. So we're just looking forward to going out and playing, hopefully putting a good performance on the board.

Q. Tom has played a lot of cricket in this ground. Played for in the (indiscernible). So how would you like to use his experience of SCG and playing in these conditions, and (indiscernible) experience. If you could talk about these two experienced players?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Tom, he's obviously great to have on the squad. He hasn't got the runs this tournament. But hopefully this is the game that he can get going.

Both of them bring a wealth of experience in T20 cricket. That's huge for our guys, especially looking at, we've got three or four guys that are under 21 years old. They're massive to have around the group and great for the morale.

Q. You don't have to look too far to see people in the Dutch ranks who have beaten highly regarded oppositions in the past. The man who has walked in with you, he was there in New England 2009, five years later I think it was. Has there been chatter taking on a team of such regard, is there anything you can put down to potentially beating a giant, what it takes to kind of unravel a more favored opposition?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Good question. I think for us it's about playing our brand of cricket and the way we go about it you're not trying to play how India would play or how Australia would play. We're trying to play our brand of cricket. We think if we play at a high enough level, then you give yourselves a chance in those kind of bigger games.

Q. There's a nice crop of players coming through the Dutch system, players who didn't even make the squad. Likes like Phillip (indiscernible) and other top players playing top cricket. How is it to have that depth in that regard, knowing you've got 20, 25 players who were always champing at the bit to play international cricket, where perhaps in times gone past it may not have been the case?

SCOTT EDWARDS: That's probably where the Super League was so good. We didn't have a lot of our county guys around that period, which made it hard to win games. But it gave a lot of our younger guys an opportunity, which I think a lot of them showed they were capable of performing and coming up against these bigger, better players.

Q. You know this group has already got three top teams, South Africa, Pakistan and the other favourites to make it to the top, too. Do you think you can be party spoiler for any team, if you can withstand any of these three, you can possibly stop one of them from going to the last four?

SCOTT EDWARDS: For us it's just about that one game at a time, I suppose. But focusing on this game against India tomorrow. Then after that, we look into the other games. But, yeah, for us it's just preparing for this game and hopefully putting up a good performance, and seeing if we can beat India tomorrow.

Q. Did you watch the India/Pakistan game before this one? Could you describe watching Virat Kohli's innings, and how do you prepare for someone like that?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Yes, unbelievable game of cricket. Still great to watch India/Pakistan games. Obviously both teams have some incredible cricketers. What Virat did yesterday was pretty surreal, or the other day. You hope you don't come up against him on one of those days because he looked pretty hard to stop.

Q. Any preparations, anyone on the team?

SCOTT EDWARDS: You look at guys individually and you see -- you set out plans for how you're going to go about bowling to them. Hopefully you execute, get them out on that day.

So, yeah, it's preparing for each of the Indian players as you would anyone else. And if you get it right on the day.

Q. You mentioned about playing your brand of cricket. Could you tell us, what is the mental setup as a captain or just players playing against India, what's the talk or what is elemental setup in the dressing room like? Is it that you have to be in there, and if you do it will be a huge thing for Netherlands cricket and for cricket -- for like the associated nations around the world, is it like you're looking at the bigger picture and you really try our best and see where it goes?

SCOTT EDWARDS: When I say our brand of cricket, it's the way we as a team think we perform best. So if we perform to the ability we think we can perform that gives us our best chance to compete. Obviously these teams if they're on their day, they're extremely hard to beat. We'll have to try to bring our A game. If it's not enough, it's enough. If it's not, it's not.

Q. Do you think that the way India has started and the kind of ranking there, the kind of superstars they have, all the pressure is on India to win because you may have nothing to lose?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Yeah, definitely, I don't think there's many people out there expecting us to win. For us, as I said, we'll play our best brand of cricket and we'll do everything we can to win this game. But there's no pressure on us in that sense, I suppose.

Q. Could you give us an idea how Netherlands as a cricket culture has evolved over the last few years? In associate nations, we normally see a lot of South Asian players involved in cricket. How has Netherlands come through in the last few years?

SCOTT EDWARDS: I think again, going back to the ODI Super League, it was great. Opportunity for us to perform on I think it's actually the first time we've played on Dutch national television.

So that combined with bringing across all these bigger nations, the crowds we're getting in are a lot bigger than we've ever had before. It's definitely growing. But in Europe, it's obviously a small sport. The better we do in these tournaments, the more popular and the more exposure the sport gets. Hopefully we can cause a couple of upsets, and there's even more exposure there.

Q. You played the top teams in ODS in recent times. And here you'll be playing two or three main teams. What were the learning points from the ODS that you can take to the T20 World Cup, playing top teams like England, Pakistan and West Indies in ODS and what can you take into this format?

SCOTT EDWARDS: I think definitely coming up against these guys, it's a little bit of an unknown, if you only play the bigger nations sort of once every few years. The fact that we got to play sort of 12 to 15 games in the last nine months gives us a lot of confidence. Even for individuals, you look at guys that have performed against these teams. It gives you that sort of acknowledgment that you can perform on a big stage against these bigger teams. We take a lot of confidence from that.

Q. Can I just check, have you got any injury concerns? Are you picking from a full squad tomorrow?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Hoping to be, yes. Obviously we'll see. Raul had a bit of an injury leading into this game. So hopefully we'll see how he goes at training today and hopefully we've got a full squad to pick from.

Q. You have said young guys on your team, and do you see some of your players taking this game against India as probably an audition for the IPL?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Not really, no. For us we want to play as a team. We want to compete as a team. Yes. I think you get that exposure from playing well as a group. I think the individual in that sense comes into it.

Q. From the learning point of view, any specific plans of a one-on-one conversation after the game or while you're playing the game with Virat Kohli, (indiscernible) any specific plan for a one-to-one interaction as a learning point of view after this game?

SCOTT EDWARDS: As in speaking to them after the game?

Q. Yes.

SCOTT EDWARDS: It would be great. It would be great, these guys are obviously the best in the world. So any chance you get to learn from these sort of players is awesome. We saw that at the last World Cup. They're generally pretty generous with their time.

For us, the first thing is playing this game of cricket in a good, hard brand of cricket. We'll go from there.

Q. Considering the way Indian batters went on Sunday, how important is it for your batters to start really well?

SCOTT EDWARDS: Yes, absolutely. I think in any game of cricket, you need to start well, whether that's with the ball or with the bat. So I suppose hopefully our batters get going to start the innings and we can go from there.

Q. You have been to Sydney, not been there to see the ground measurements and all. What are your thoughts on the conditions right now?

SCOTT EDWARDS: We've only just actually walked up to the ground now. I'll be checking that out in the next few minutes.