The 30-year-old van Gerwen will be joined by Jermaine Wattimena instead of Raymond van Barneveld at this year's tournament, which begins tomorrow at Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg.

Veteran van Barneveld missed out on selection as he is the third highest-ranked player from the country.

He sits in 29th place, six below Wattimena.

The top two players in the rankings represent their nations at the World Cup of Darts.

The Netherlands are one of eight seeds for the 32-team tournament, due to conclude with the final on Sunday (June 8).

Scotland, who are fielding Gary Anderson and Peter Wright, are the second seeds.

They will aim to go one better than last year, when they lost in the final to the Dutch duo of van Gerwen and van Barneveld.

The competition is a straight knockout.

The first round features doubles matches over  nine legs, while the second round comprises two best-of-seven legs singles matches. 

The final will be the first to three points, where two best-of-seven legs singles matches are played followed by a best-of-seven doubles match.