Sports
Nepal eye Twenty20 rankings
The Nepali national cricket team on Thursday left for Sri Lanka for an 18-day tour to fine-tune their ICC World Cricket League Division II preparationsNepal will play two three-day matches against Sri Lanka-XI along with their first every Twenty20 International bilateral series—against Hong Kong—followed by a 50-over game. While the team has taken the three-day matches to prepare themselves for the Division II, the Twenty20 International will give Nepal improve on their world ranking in Twenty20 cricket.
With a win percentage of 66 following their performance in the World Twenty20 held in Bangladesh in March this year, Nepal can overtake Associate rivals Afghanistan and Ireland in the rankings. But they need to a play the minimum requirement of eight international games to get enlisted in the standings. Coach Pubudu Dassanayake said the Twenty20 Series in Sri Lanka carries a huge significance to Nepal.
“Hong Kong are the familiar opponents against whom we have good records in the shorter version of the game,” said the Nepal coach. “If we come out with a clean sweep we could take our winning percentage close to 80. Winning two more games after that can help us overtake Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the rankings. To achieve the goal however we need to first defeat Hong Kong,” said Dassanayake ahead of the team’s departure to Sri Lanka.
The Nepali squad has new faces in Karan KC and Rajesh Pulami Magar with aggressive finisher Sharad Vesawkar sidelined due to health related issues. The coach said Vesawkar will be dearly missed as “he is almost irreplaceable”.
“He is the one who has made Nepal a complete Twenty20 team. Finding his alternative is next to impossible for us. But considering the familiarity with Hong Kong, we can put on a good show against them,” the coach said indicating the rising medium pace bowler KC could make his appearance in all of Nepal’s matches.
“The three-day matches will be a perfect platform for us to test experienced and young players,” added the coach. “I don’t care about the result of the three-day matches. If our boys play full overs, we can consider that we have a good preparation for Division II. The biggest positive for us from the tour is that we can test our players and Karan is the one whom I am considering to include throughout the tour,” added Dassanayake.
Vice-captain Gyanendra Malla was closely looking at the series against Hong Kong. “The tour is a good preparation for Division II,” said Malla. “But most importantly the series will be important in climbing up the ladder in the ICC rankings. We are now eager to complete the minimum requirement of eight T20 Internationals to get into the rankings,” said Malla.