Nepali national cricket team left for Kuwait on Wednesday to participate in the inaugural ACC Twenty20 Cup with a hope of returning with the title.
Nepal will play its first Twenty20 international against Malaysia on Saturday. Captain Binod Das looked confident of impressive performance in the new form of the game.
“Every team is new for the event so nothing can be said,” Binod said. “We have seen the game of Afghanistan and Malaysia but are unaware of others.”
“We have always been good in bowling and fielding,” he added. “This is time for batsmen to perform.” He believed most of the players in his team are capable of batting.
“We will try to score more than 150 or restrict opponents to less than that,” he said adding that Nepali team would be able to adapt to the new form of the game quickly.
Coach Roy Dias believed any team could challenge any team in Twenty20. “Every team has equal chances, so the title is open,” he said. “I hope the perennial weakness in batting will improve this time.”
Nepal is placed in Group A of the 10-team event along with Qatar, Afghanistan and Oman. The other group consists of UAE, Kuwait, Singapore, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia.
Nepal is the youngest team in the tournament in terms of average age.
Squad: Binod Das (captain), Paras Khadka (vice-captain), Paresh Lohani, Shakti Gauchan, Sarad Vesawkar, Mehboob Alam, Gyanendra Malla, Akash Gupta, Dipesh Khatri, Rahul BK, Basanta Regmi, Amir Akhtar and Mahesh Chhetri, Sashi Dutta Pandey (manager), Navin Singh (assistant coach), Binay Kumar Jha (umpire) and Roy Dias (coach).