KATHMANDU, Feb 19: Nepal women’s national cricket team will kick start its International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup Asian Region Qualifiers against Malaysia for a World Cup place on Tuesday.
This is the first hurdle for Nepal as it aims to reach the T20 World Cup to be held in 2020, and the ODI World Cup to be organized in 2021.
The host Thailand, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, Hong Kong, and Kuwait will go head to head against each other in a round robin league. The top two teams will reach the Global Qualifiers with all the teams to play six matches each. The Global Qualifiers is recognized in both T20 and ODI versions.
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The Nepali team, despite fewer preparations, had finished as the runner-up in the Thailand T20 Women’s Smash Tournament. With that performance, the women’s team is confident of playing with the same intensity yet again in Thailand.
The qualifying tournament will start from Monday, while Nepal will play on Tuesday. Nepal has already played against the host Thailand, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China and Malaysia in the T20 Smash.
Nepal had made it to the last four winning all the group stage matches in the tournament, and also beat Indonesia to reach the final. However, Nepal returned home as the runner-up after losing to the host Thailand in the summit clash.
The Nepali players are well set for taking revenge against the host for the final loss.
This tournament will serve as the qualifiers as it is the T20I recognized tournament and all the matches will be international T20 matches. In the T20I rankings, Thailand is at the top among the tournament teams in the 12th place, while the UAE is 14th and Nepal 16th.
The squad comprises captain Chhetri, vice-captain Seeta Rana Magar, Karuna Bhandari, Sarita Magar, Nery Thapa, Indu Barma, Sonu Khadka, Arati Bidari, Kajal Shrestha, Roma Thapa, Kabita Kunwar, Mamata Kumari Chaudhary and Bindu Rawal.
Anjali Chand, Ritu K Mari Konujiya and Suman Bista are included as the optional players.
Nepal’s head coach is Binod Das, with Nira Rajupodhaya serving as the assistant coach, Amrita Paudel as the team manager and Sakun Dani as the team physio.
