May 21, 2025
There is a huge amount of excitement building around Spanish men’s cricket as the national team take on Denmark in three ODIs next week, the first step on what will hopefully be a long journey of playing 50 over international cricket. The series, which will be hosted by Svanholm Cricket Club on 29th, 30th and 31st of May, against a strong and experienced Denmark side, will provide a good gauge of the challenges the Spanish team face in returning to ODI cricket after 7 years.
Having had a couple of weeks to reflect on the High-Performance camp in La Manga, coach Corey Rutgers was delighted with the quality of cricket on show, some standout performances but particularly with the capacity of players to adapt to this new, longer format, many playing 50 over cricket for the first time. The matches at Svanholm Cricket Club will replicate the La Manga camp, three games in three days providing a physical test to go alongside the cricketing examination the side will face. There were some difficult decisions that had to be made in trimming the travelling squad down to 14. However, Rutgers is delighted with the make-up and balance of the squad selected which includes plenty of familiar faces, rewarded for their excellent T20 performances, together with some names who it is great to see back in Spanish colours.
There is avery warm welcome back to Joshua Trembearth Moro, who has been playing Victoria Premier cricket in Australia over the last few years, and a return for quick bowling all-rounder, Muhammad Kamran, who dominated with bat and ball in LaManga. Joining him in the pace attack are the fiery Raja Adeel and the reliable left-arm seamers Muhammad Atif and Atif Mehmood. There is also good variety in the spin bowling department with leg-spinner Lorne Burns, off-spinner Yasir Aliand left arm orthodox spinners, Charlie Rumistrzewicz and Sebastian Hughes-Piñán, who all performed well in the recent camp. Wicket keeping duties are covered by Alec Davidson-Soler and Muhammad Ihsan, who will also figure prominently as batters, as will hard-hitting, medium pace all-rounder Hamza Saleem Dar. Adnan Tahir also gets the call after impressing with his ability to rotate the strike and his calm temperament under pressure. With captain, Chris Muñoz-Mills unavailable, Daniel Doyle Calle fresh from a superb La Manga series including a blazing 160 not out in Game 2, will be captaining the side, with Yasir Ali as his deputy.
If theSpanish team are able to maintain their top 30 T20i ICC ranking, there will bethe opportunity to play in the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenger play off at the end of 2026. This includes the two teams at the bottom of the global standings of Group A, currently Denmark and Qatar, and Group B, currently Tanzania and Singapore, together with the four teams pushing for a place in these groups, Malaysia,Spain, Saudi Arabia and Bermuda. With the exciting prospect of playing in theseCricket World Cup Challenger play-offs all over the world at the end of 2026, Rutgers stated, “The Denmark series is a great test for us to see how we match up and to continue the development of our squad.”
Once again there is much to look forward to as another new chapter for Spanish men’s cricket begins.
Spain Squad for Denmark Tour: Daniel Doyle-Calle (Captain), Yasir Ali (Vice-Captain), Raja Adeel, Muhammad Atif, Lorne Burns, Hamza Saleem Dar, Alec Davidson-Soler, Sebastian Hughes-Piñán, Muhammad Ihsan, Muhammad Kamran, Atif Mehmood, Charlie Rumistrzewicz, Adnan Tahir, Joshua Trembearth Moro.
credit Quentin Hughes Piñan
