Nepal U-19 squad announced, batting in focus: Binod Das

Published On: October 29, 2017 04:20 PM NPT

KATHMANDU, Oct 29: The final squad of Nepal U-19 cricket team for upcoming ACC U-19 Youth Asia Cup 2017 was announced on Sunday. The tournament will be held at Malaysia from 9-20 November 2017.

Dipendra Singh Airee will retain the captaincy and the lead the team in the upcoming practice tour to Bangladesh in November first week followed by Youth Asia Cup in the second week.

Former U-16 captain Sumit Maharjan has filed to hold the place on the back of his poor outing with the bat at the camp. "The new batsmen Bhim Sarki and Jitendra Singh have been most prolific batsmen of the camp, we needed in-form batsmen given our problems in past. Our focus is on improving our batting", said Binod Das the head coach of U-19 cricket team. "Our bowling is more than covered with Rohit Poudel and Rashid Khan who are more than capable bowling options but we have struggled with the bat" added the former captain of national cricket team Das.

Ankit Subedi also impressed in the camp but he was not able to complete his documentation due to some unavoidable circumstances only making it to reserve squad. "I'm really impressed with Ankit Subedi but unfortunately we couldn't include him in the final squad. Anil Kumar Sah's improvement as a batsman is also encouraging signs for our batting" Binod Das added.

Wicket-keeper Prakash KC is also making a comeback in the team after failing to make the final squad for Asian Region tournament.

Allrounder Sandeep Jora has been demoted to reserves squad along with leg-spinner Bikram Bhusal. Nandan Yadav is out injured replaced by Ankit Subedi and Bijay Chaudhary.

Squad: Dipendra Singh Airee (Captain), Rohit Kumar Paudel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sandeep Sunar, Pranit Thapa Magar, Anil Kumar Sah, Pawan Sarraf, Mahamad Asif Sheikh, Kishor Mahato, Shahab Alam, Prakash KC, Kamal Singh Airee, Bhim Sarki, Rashid Khan and Jitendra Singh.

Reserve Players: Sandeep Jora, Bikram Kumar Bhusal, Ankit Subedi, Bijay Chaudhary

The selection committee was headed by Head Coach of Nepal U19 cricket team Binod Kumar Das & ACC's consultant for Nepal Venkatapathy Raju.

The U-19 team is set to travel Bangladesh on October 30 and will feature in three practice matches on 2nd, 4th & 5th of November against Bangladesh U-19 cricket team. The team will return back to Nepal on 6th November 2017 before heading to Malaysia for Youth Asia Cup.