Paras Khadka has retained captaincy of the U-19 national squad as Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) announced the squad for the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup 2008.
Khadka, a experienced campaigner with two youth world cups, will have equally experienced Gyanendra Malla as his subordinate.
Other members of the 15-member team are Mahesh Chhetri, Raj Shrestha, Amrit Bhattarai, Abhaya Rana, Antim Thapa, Chandra Saud, Anil Mandal, Akash Gupta, Sagar Khadka, Rom Shrestha, Ruhul Kumar BK, Puspa Thapa and Subash Pradhan.
Sunam Gautam, Santosh Baral and Nirmal Simangaida have been selected as stand-by players. The national selection committee headed by Bijay Kumar Sharma selected the players.
The Youth World Cup begins on February 17 in Malaysia. Nepal is the defending plate-champions and ranked ninth among 16 nations in the last world cup in Sri Lanka. Nepal is placed in Group C against Australia, Sri Lanka and Namibia.
Nepal’s first game will be on February 18 against coach Roy Dias’ home-nation Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the team will travel to Bangladesh for three friendly matches against Bangladesh U-19 on January 2008, Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) announced on Monday.
Bangladesh Cricket Board has invited Nepal for the tour, from January 22 to 28, as a preparation for the U-19 Cricket World Cup.