Indian Premier League (IPL) team Delhi Daredevils unveiled Sandeep Lamichhane’s jersey in Kathmandu on Thursday.

The 17-year-old leg-spinner will don the No 1 jersey for the IPL franchise who brought him at a base price of Rs 3.2 million (IRs 2 million) in auction on January 28. National Sports Council member secretary Keshab Kumar Bista and Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua handed over the jersey to the national team teenaged star.

“We gave him the choice to pick the jersey number and he opted for No 1. We want him to be No 1 in leg-spinner in the world. We want him to play well and excel,” said Dua about Lamichhane, who is the first Nepali player to be feature in the cash-rich T20 cricket which has the highest number of viewership across the world.

“We have been tracking him for the last one year. We called him for a trial in Delhi where he bowled in an indoor facility for half an hour,” recalled Dua. “We found him brilliant. We sent the video clips to Ricky Ponting (the team coach) and he liked it. Dua said his team was lucky to get Lamichhane in the auction and want to see the Nepali star in the playing set.

Due, however, said Lamichhane’s chances to playing will largely depend on his progress during training and practice sessions. “We all want him to play but at the end of the day it is captain and coach who decide the team combination,” said Dua adding that it will be a great learning curve for Lamichhane to be sharing the dressing room with the likes of captain Gautam Gambhir and coach Ponting. Lamichhane will play alongside with some of the big names in international cricket including Jason Roy of England, Colin Munro of New Zealand, Gleen Maxwell of Australia and Kagiso Rabada of South Africa.

Lamichhane, named player-of-the-series in the ICC World Cricket League Division II in Namibia in February, said that it was important for his team to win rather than being included in the playing set. He took 17 wickets in Division II. He was also the highest wicket-taker for Nepal with 13 scalps in Zimbabwe during the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, where Nepal earned am One-Day International status.

After making his debut in the Nepali national team two years ago, he has claimed 42 wickets so far in list A matches. He is only behind Sompal Kami (52) and Basanta Regmi (45) in the list of highest wicket-takers for Nepal list A matches.