The 15-member final squad includes Paras Khadka, Sharad Vesawkar, Basant Regmi, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Subash Khakurel, Gyanendra Malla, Shakti Prasad Gauchan, Sagar Pun, Binod Bhandari, Rajesh Pulami Magar, Pradeep Airee, Jitendra Kumar Mukhiya, Anil Mandal and Siddhant Lohani, states a press release issued by Deepak Koirala, the acting president of CAN.Similarly, Prithu Baskota, Mahaboob Alam, Bhuban Karki and Avinash Karn are named as the reserved players.
Earlier, CAN had announced a 22-member preliminary squad for the Qualifiers and ICC World Cricket League Championship. Nepal is scheduled to play two List A matches of the Championship against Scotland on July 29 and 31.
Mahesh Kumar Chhetri, Hari Shankar Sah and Saurabh Khanal, who were in the 22-member squad, have been excluded.
Majority players of the final squads are from the team that played ICC World Twnety20 in Bangladesh last year and ICC World Cricket League Division 2 held in Namibia in January this year.
Rajesh, who played T20I against Hong Kong, and Siddhant were not in both World Cup and Division 2 squads, while Karan was in the Division 2. Likewise, Jitendra, Pradeep and Anil were not in the Division 2 squad.
Nepal is in Dharamsala, Himanchal, India, in the closed camp training since June 5 to prepare the Qualifiers and Championship matches.
Team Officials
As per the press release, CAN Acting President Deepak Koirala is the team leader and CAN Chief Operation Officer Chhumbi Lama is the team manager.
Pubudu Dassnayake is the head coach while former national team skipper Binod Kumar Das has been assigned bowling coach and Monty Desai will be batting coach of the team. Indian national Aijaz Ashai will accompany the team as physiotherapist and Raman Shiwakoti has been given duty of technical analyst.
Indian national Monty Desai is the former head coach of Indian Premier League side Rajasthan Royals and consultant coach of Canada national team.
Who is Siddhant Lohani
The 20-year-old all-rounder Siddhant Lohani who hails from Biratnagar is known for his aggressive style of batting and leg spin bowling. He represented Region No 1 (Biratnagar) in the Senior One Day National Cricket Tournament held in May.
Siddhant had completed half century off 17 balls as he scored 67 runs off 25 balls against Region No 8 (Pokhara). He also scored 46 runs against Region No 5 (Nepalgunj) during the same tournament.
Siddhant also represented Nepal in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup held in UAE in 2013/14 December and January. He had played against India and UAE.
Meanwhile, coach Pubudu Dassanayake said that Siddhant was included in the squad due to his batting power. "Sidhhant is batting well so he was included in the squad," said coach Dassanayake, who added that the squad is the best combination Nepali team can get.
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