Shakti Gauchan has been appointed as the captain of the Nepali U-19 team that will play three one-day matches against India U-19, during the first ever visit by an official team of the test playing nation.
Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) included four new faces in the team, which otherwise has the players of the team that participated in Youth World Cup in New Zealand last year. Four new players are Sarad Veshwakar, Munik Shrestha, Irfan Siddique and Dipesh Khatri. All of them had already represented Nepal in various age-group.
Veshwakar was the pick of U-15 team during U-15 Asia Cup in UAE. He scored 274 runs in 8 matches with an average of 45.66 that included a fifty and a hundred. Shrestha, who is also the first-ever Nepali player to score a century in international arena, had represented Nepal in ICC Trophy in Canada. Shrestha scored unbeaten 113 runs against Singapore in ACC U-17 Asia Cup in Bangladesh.
Siddique and Khatri also took part in ACC U-17 Asia Cup in Bangladesh. Khatri scored 78 runs against Bangladesh as his best while Siddique picked up 4 wickets against Singapore during the tournament. Gauchan led the team during that tournament.
Former U-19 captain Binod Das, Vice-captain Bardan Chalise and off-spinner Sanjam Regmi could not be included as they have crossed the age-bar.
Skipper Gauchan is considered as one of the most talented players Nepal had ever has. Gauchan had represented Nepal U-17, U-19 and senior team. In U-17 level, he has scored 78 runs in four matches including a half-century and taken 3 wickets. In U-19, Gauchan has scored 287 runs from 13 matches with an average of 28.5 including a century and a half-century and has claimed 12 wickets. But his best is for the senior team, for which he has scored 287 runs in 9 matches at an average of 35.78 with two half-centuries and has also taken 9 wickets at an average of over 12. His economy rate is astonishing – 1.97 runs per over.
Other members of the team are – Kaniska Chaugain, Manoj Katuwal, Lakpa Lama, Manjeet Shrestha, Yashwant Subedi, Pramod Basnet, Basudev Thapa, Basant Regmi, Prem Chaudhary and Rohit Sharma.
India U-19 will play first match on April 26, second on 27 and last on 30 before their departure.