Nepal will play against India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the Group A fixtures at the ACC U-19 Men’s Asia Cup, which is scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates in December this year.

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, hosts UAE and Japan are pitted in Group B.

Dev Khanal’s team open their U-19 Asia Cup playing against Pakistan in Dubai on December 8. They play Afghanistan on December 10 before facing off defending champions India on December 12.

India are the most successful team of the 50-over tournament, having lifted the trophy eight times out of nine editions.

India start their defence of the title playing against Afghanistan. Hosts UAE play against Bangladesh, while Japan take on last-edition’s runners-up Sri Lanka on December 10 in their opening matches.

Afghanistan have won the trophy once—in the 2017 edition in Malaysia when India fell behind Bangladesh and Nepal in their group and were eliminated. Nepal advanced as group-runners up into the semi-finals which they lost to Afghanistan by seven wickets. This was the only occasion Nepal’s U-19 team have progressed past the group stage.

Pakistan are also one-time winners. They shared the trophy with India in 2012 after the final match was tied.

India have never hosted the tournament.

Nepal, the UAE and Japan progressed into the main event as the top three teams of ACC Men’s U-19 Premier Cup that was held on October 12-24. Nepal won the Cup defeating UAE by 19 runs on D/L method in the final.

The Asia Cup will serve as preparation for the 2024 U-19 World Cup which is set to take place in Sri Lanka from January 13-February 4 next year.

Besides the full member nations India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Nepal are the only Asia Cup participants to play at the next year’s global showpiece. Nepal won the Asia Regional Qualifiers in March last year to book their ticket to the U-19 World Cup.