Nepal head coach Jagat Tamatta and national captain Paras Khadka have announced the 15-member squad for the upcoming Asian Cricket Council Asia Cup qualifiers.
A short tour of Sri Lanka follows after the customary closed camp for tournament probables to prepare for the qualifiers, where Nepal will play three practice games.
Although Hagar Tamatta has mentioned that he is happy with the current set-up, which travelled to UK and Netherlands recently, the squad sees the return of Sagar Pun, who had a good outing in the Malaysian Premier League with his team, Kuala Lumpur.
Notable absentee remains in Sharad Vesawkar, who picked up a hand injury during Nepal’s debut ODI match against Netherlands on 01st Aug 2018.
Nepal will compete against Hong Kong, UAE, Oman, Singapore and host’s Malaysia for a single qualification spot for the main draw of ACC Asia Cup, where the winner will be clubbed along with India and Pakistan in the group stages of the tournament in UAE.
It will be a tough tussle for the qualification spot as it presents a lot of incentives for countries like UAE (who get to play matches at home against Full members) and Hong Kong (after having lost their funding from Hong Kong Sports institute due to non-inclusion of cricket in the 2018 Asian Games and funding from ICC after a disappointing finish in the World Cup qualifiers and losing their ODI status until FY2022).
Nepal Squad for Asia Cup qualifiers:
