Hosts Nepal will vie against Papua New Guinea (PNG) in a two-match bilateral One-Day International Series set to begin on Friday at the TU cricket ground in Kirtipur.

It will be the first ever bilateral series to be hosted by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN). The second match will take place on Saturday. The ODI Series will be followed by a Tri-Nation Twenty20 International Series involving Malaysia along with PNG and hosts Nepal from March 28 to April 4 at the same venue.

Both Nepal and PNG will be locking horns fresh after their two ODI games in the UAE Triangular Series of the ICC World Cup League 2 games. Nepal emerged victorious in both the games defeating the Oceania side by two wickets and seven wickets respectively.

Apart from the two games of the UAE Series, the two sides have played two more ODI matches and Nepal have won both of them during a bilateral Series in September last year in Oman.

Having won all four previous ODI fixtures, Nepal will be aiming to give continuity to their dominance over PNG at the home ground. Meanwhile, PNG will look to pull off their first-ever victory over Nepal in the game.

In the separate squad announced by CAN for ODIs and T20s, veteran former captain Gyanendra Malla and wicketkeeper batter Binod Bhandari have been left out from both formats of the games.

All-rounder Karan KC and opener Aasif Sheikh have also been left out from the ODI squad. Under-19 age group players Dev Khanal and Aadil Khan have made it to the ODI squad for the first time while wicketkeeper batter Dilip Nath has made a comeback after a long time.

Captain Sandeep Lamichhane, Aarif Sheikh, Kushal Bhurtel, Sompal Kami, Dipendra Singh Airee, Sagar Dhakal, Kamal Singh Airee, Anil Shah, Bikram Sob, Sushan Bhari, Rohit Paudel, Pawan Sarraf, Gulshan Jha and Bhim Sharki are the other members of the ODI squad.

The T20 squad comprises captain Lamichhane, Sheikh brothers Aarif and Aasif, Bhurtel, Kami, Airee duo Dipendra and Kamal, Dhakal, Abinash KC, Bibek Yadav, Nath, Lokesh Bam, Kushal Malla and Khan.

Meanwhile, CAN announced that they have finished all the preparations for the Series. According to CAN treasurer Roshan Singh they have sold the media and commercial rights to SanB holdings for Rs12 million. The expected cost of the two Series is Rs14.2 million.

All matches of both the Series will be telecast live on Kantipur Television.