Akash Gupta breaks into the national side as Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) announced the 14 cricketers to participate in the ACC Trophy.
The squad is Binod Das (captain), Shakti Gauchan (vice-captain), Manoj Vaishya (wicket-keeper), Paresh Lohani, Dhirendra Chand, Kanishka Chaugai, Raj Kumar Pradhan, Sharad Veshawkar, Gyanendra Malla, Paras Khadka, Raju Basnet, Mehboob Alam, Akash Gupta and Basant Regmi.
Bhairahawa batsman Akash, who learnt cricket in India, is the only new face in the team while Raj Kumar Pradhan, the leg-spinner, who was not named while CAN announced the 18 probable has also been included in the team along with Mehboob Alam, who was in Qatar.
Mehboob, the most successful all-rounder of the national team, left for Qatar to work and play cricket. It is learnt that his travel expense to Nepal was paid by CAN and will be joining the national team soon. While Mehboob was asked to join the team, Aamir Akhtar, the all-rounder who was called from England to play in the four-day ICC InterContinental match against Namibia, has been left out despite his willingness to pay for the travel expense himself.
Manoj Katuwal has also been axed from the national team to make way for Manoj Vaishya. The two wicket-keepers are being rotated for events. Also big name missing in the squad is off-spinner Sanjam Regmi who has been named as alternative along with Amrit Bhattarai, Katuwal and Bijay Thapa.
Thakur Pratap Thapa would take the charge of the team as manager while Asha Gurung will be his deputy. Jung Bahadur Thapa would assist Roy Dias. The team would travel to Pakistan for three practice matches against National Cricket Academy before leaving to Malaysia for the August 12-26 event.
(Talk about it at FANCLUB)