The depth of the Southern Thunder, the Australian men's baseball team, is about to be tested.
Several debutants are poised to face some of the world's highest-ranked nations in a tournament in the Netherlands over the next few days.
The bi-annual Haarlemse Honkbalweek tournament will pit World No.13 Australia against teams representing Japan (No.1), Taiwan (3), the Netherlands (10) and Curacao (66).
Adding to the challenge for Australia, who play four matches in six days starting on Saturday, will be that they have only eight of the squad from their successful World Baseball Classic (WBC) qualifying campaign in Sydney last February.
"Most of the players are in the United States playing but this gives other guys a chance to prove themselves," Southern Thunder team manager Jon Deeble said.
"It will allow us to see what we have in regards to depth.
"Aaron Sayers, Jacob Younis, Wilson Lee, Tom Bailey and Andrew Campbell will all make their debut for the men's national team.
"(Pitcher) Dushan Ruzic is making a comeback and had 12 months off, but is back for this tournament, then the ABL, then trying to make the WBC team."
Australia begins their campaign against Taiwan on Saturday.
"Japan have a really good side as do Taiwan, both will be tough to beat," Deeble said.
"The Netherlands won't be as strong as usual as the players from Aruba won't be on their team but we're still expecting a strong contest.
"We are expecting a tough tournament that is for sure.
"This is important for world ranking points, so we are going out there to win.
"It is very important but at the same time we aren't at full strength, but it gives others a chance to prove they can play at this level."
Deeble was hopeful baseball would be restored to the Olympics for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board has already announced it will support the inclusion of baseball at the 2020 Olympics, with a final vote on the composition of the sports program for those games to be taken at the full IOC meeting in Rio de Janeiro in August.
"We are all very hopeful baseball gets back into the Olympics," Deeble said.
"Hopefully the vote goes out way, which will be a massive boost for the sport."
