KATHMANDU, August 13: The 28-men preliminary squad of Nepal U19 cricket team for upcoming ACC U-19 Eastern Region qualifiers for U-19 Asia Cup has been announced.
The tournament is set to be held at Malaysia from 8 to 17 September 2017. The announced 28 players will join the closed camp on August 18 at TU Cricket Ground, Kathmandu.
Nepal will compete with Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Bhutan, Myanmar and China to earn a place in the main group of Asia Cup scheduled for November. The teams finishing at top two by the end a league round will join Test nations, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The upcoming junior Asia Cup was moved from India to Malaysia after Pakistan refused to play due to tense political relations with their neighbor.
The Western Region qualifying round which includes Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain will be hosted by Kuwait, the venue which is in doubt due to the ongoing diplomatic crisis in the Gulf.
38 players named in preliminary squad
Squad: Sandeep Lamichhane, Anil Kumar Sah, Sandeep Sunar, Dipendra Singh Airee, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Prakash KC, Pawan Sarraf, Rohit Kumar Paudel, Rijan Dhakal, Pranit Thapa Magar, Shahab Alam, Aadil Khan, Mohammad Aasif Sheikh, Kishor Mahato, Bikram Kumar Bhusal, Sandeep Jhora, Rashid Khan, Sushant Singh Thapa, Nandan Yadav, Kamal Singh Airee, Sumit Maharjan, Jitendra Singh Thakuri, Minas Thapa, Ankit Subedi, Hari Chauhan, Avinash Karn, Bhim Sarki & Rabindra Jung Shahi.
The Selection committee was headed by head coach of Nepal senior team Jagat Tamatta and current head coach of U-19 team Binod Kumar Das.
