A press statement issued by CAN Chief Executive Officer Bhawana Ghimire said that the squad will be captained by regular skipper Raju Rijal.
Among the 15-member regular squad, Raju Rijal, Aarif Sheikh, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sunil Dhamala, Dipendra Airee, Saurabh Khanal, Prem Tamang, Sushil Kandel, Dipesh Shrestha, Rajbir Singh, Yogendra Karki and Shankar Rana (12 players) were the members of the regular squad that claimed the title of ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifiers held in Malaysia in October to seal Nepal’s berth for Bangladesh finals.
Similarly, Sandeep Lamichhane and Himanshu Dutta, currently in regular squad, were named as reserved for the qualifiers.
Kushal Bhurtel and Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, the regulars of the previous squad, have been kept in reserve squad along with Irshad Ahmed and Nandan Yadav.
Inclusion of Ishan Pandey
Ishan Pandey, who hails from Syangja, is the opener left-hand batsman who impressed the selectors enough to pick him for the ICC U-19 World Cup. However, he has been playing cricket for Kathmandu.
According to U-19 coach Jagat Tamata, the young batsman impressed the selectors with his quality to play patiently though with average performance in the selection and closed camp trainings.
Tamata also informed that team will have extra advantage due to Pandey’s left hand batting.
However, his place in the World Cup will be decided by his performance during the team’s visit to India.
Nepal is travelling to India on December 30 to train for the youth world cup.
According to Tamata, Nepal will play two practice matches in New Delhi and three practice matches in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh.
Nepal has been in Group D in the World Cup along with India, Australia and New Zealand and is scheduled to face New Zealand on January 28, Australia on January 30 and India on February 1 in the group stage.
Nepal is also scheduled to play warm-up matches against Pakistan on January 23 and Sri Lanka on January 25 before the World Cup.
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