Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) dropped pacer Amrit Bhattarai and Sanjam Regmi and included Avinash Karn, Sagar Pun and Ram Naresh Giri in the national team for the ACC Emerging Teams Cup to be held in Singapore from August 17 to 25.
Amrit Bhattarai
Bhattarai and Regmi, who were in the 14-member national team that won ICC World Cricket League Division 3, are considered only as reserved players in the 15-member squad announced on Monday.
Sanjam Regmi
Giri was reserved players for Division 3 while U-19 bowling-star Karn is considered for the first time in the national team. Karn had taken record 24 wickets during the ACC U-19 Elite Cup held in Malaysia three months ago. Pun was the member of Nepali team during the ACC T20 Cup held in Kathmandu. However, Emerging Teams Cup would be his first 50-over tournament from the national side.
Paras Khadka retained his captaincy while Gyanendra Malla, as earlier, is assigned as vice-captain. Sharad Vesawkar, Subash Khakurel, Prithu Baskota, Shakti Gauchan, Rahul Vishwakarma, Basant Regmi, Pradeep Airee, Binod Bhandari, Chandra Sawad and Anil Mandal also retained their position in the team.
Naresh Budhayer and Mahesh Chhetri are considered only as reserved players while Binod Das, Yagyaman Kumal and Jitendra Mukhiya, who were called for the initial phase of the closed camp, are left out.
The national team is scheduled to play practice matches and to attend training sessions in Sri Lanka from August 1 to 14 and fly directly to Singapore.
Nepal has been drawn along with India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in Group A in the 50-over format tournament. Similarly, group B consists of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the UAE and Singapore. Test nations India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will field their U-23 teams in the tournament.
Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has introduced the tournament to promote associate nations.