Aarati Bidari, Dolly Bhatta, Bindu Rawal and Kabita Kunwar were the new faces as a 14-member final Nepali squad was announced on Wednesday for the upcoming Thailand Women’s Twenty20 Smash scheduled for January 12-18.
Aarati Bidari, Dolly Bhatta, Bindu Rawal and Kabita Kunwar were the new faces as a 14-member final Nepali squad was announced on Wednesday for the upcoming Thailand Women’s Twenty20 Smash scheduled for January 12-18.
Nepal are ending their 13-month long break from international women’s cricket through Twenty20 Smash which serves as preparation for the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup Asia Qualifier which is also slated to be held in Thailand from February 18-27.
The round-robin league Asia Qualifier will send the winner into the Global Qualifier of the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup and ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2020.
The Twenty20 Smash is going to be Nepal’s first international participation after they played in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifying Series Asia Region in Thailand in November last year. The four players previously had made into the closed-camp for various international tournaments but this is the first time the quartet has managed to make the final cut. Rubina Chhetry will lead the Nepali squad that also consists of Sita Rana Magar as her deputy.
Karuna Bhandari, Sarita Magar, Nary Thapa, Indu Barma, Sonu Khadka, Kajal Shrestha, Roma Thapa and Mamta Kumari Chaudhary are the other members in the team. Ritu Kanojiya, Suman Bist and Sabnam Rai have been named reserves. Nepali U-19 team head coach Binod Das is currently looking after the team.
Amrita Paudel is the team manager, while Sakuna Dani is the physiotherapist. The Twenty20 Smash is organised by the Cricket Association of Thailand and will involved 10 teams who have been divided into two pools. The top two teams after the round robin league will make it to the semi-finals.
Nepal are drawn alongside Kuwait, Namibia, Tanzania and Indonesia. Hosts Thailand, Sri Lanka Navy, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Bhutan are in the other pool. Nepal will begin their tournament campaign with a match against Tanzania on January 12 before taking on Namibia on January 14.
Next up for the Nepali team will be Indonesian team on January 15 and Kuwait the very next day. The semi-final matches are scheduled for January 17.
Adarsha Dhakal is a sports reporter for The Kathmandu Post. He has been reporting on sports for more than a decade, focusing on cricket, basketball and sports features. He has been with the Post for over five years and has worked for various other national publications.
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