Shrestha, who had not won a national cap since the ICC World Cricket League Division 4 held in Italy in 2010, is considered as a handy batsman and medium pacer for the T20 format.[break]
The team under Paras Khadka´s captaincy retains Gyanendra Malla as vice-captain. Sharad Vesawkar, Amrit Bhattarai, Shakti Gauchan, Basanta Regmi, Sanjam Regmi, Pradeep Airee, Anil Mandal, Prithu Baskota, Subash Khakurel, Binod Bhandari and Chandra Sawad complete the national team.
The ACC T20 Elite Cup to be held in Kathmandu from March 26 to April 3 would be a T20 comeback for Binod Bhandari. Bhandari was not included in the T20 team that played the ICC World T20 Qualifiers last year in the UAE. However, he was in the team during the ACC Elite Cup held in the UAE. On the other hand, pacer Sawad had pulled out from the ACC Elite Cup because of injury.
CAN has considered Rahul Vishwakarma, Jitendra Mukhiya, Ram Naresh Giri and Sagar Pun as reserve players for the ACC T20 Cup. Vishwakarma had also pulled out of the ACC Elite Cup because of back pain.
Nepal has been drawn in Group A of the tournament along with Malaysia, Hong Kong, Maldives and Singapore. The UAE, Afghanistan, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain have been drawn in Group B.
The top two teams of the tournament will qualify for the World T20 Qualifiers to be held in the UAE in November. Afghanistan, a team with ODI status, and the UAE as the host have already secured their places for the qualifiers. In this scenario, if Afghanistan and the UAE reached the semifinals of the ACC T20 Cup, other two semifinalists would also automatically qualify for the World T20 Qualifiers.
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