Nepal open their ACC U-19 Premier campaign against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday.

With tough opponents Afghanistan waiting, the match will give coach Jagat Tamatta an opportunity to set his squad. The Nepali camp would be raring to defeat the UAE and head into the tie against the Afghans.

As Kuwait and Saudi Arabia go into the tournament ranked as minnows, Nepal will target hosts Malaysia and the UAE. “We have worked hard for this event. I know the UAE are one of the well-facilitated teams but that doesn’t mean we are weak,” Tamatta had said before leaving for Malaysia.

Nepal had crushed the UAE by 94 runs in the previous edition held in Kuwait with 10 players from the current squad involved in the victory. The power packed performance in the previous encounter would give Nepal a psychological edge.

In their 15-year ACC U-19 history, Nepal have lost only once to the UAE in the semi-finals in 2013 when the tournament was played as ACC U-19 Elite Cup—a league-cum-knock out event. The loss had thrown Nepal out of the 2014 ICC U-19 World Cup race.

Nepal’s lone pace bowler in the squad, Dipesh Shrestha, will be expected to share the ball with either spinner Dhamala or allrounders Sheikh and Saurav Khanal. Since, Tamatta has plenty of spin options in Prem Tamang, Dhamala, Sushil Kandel and Sunar, his only area of concern would be batting.

Nepal’s batting would rely heavily on the experience of Aarif Sheikh and middle order batsman and skipper Raju Rijal. Tamatta said the ACC U-19 Premier would be a good test for his openers which has not yet been confirmed. Tamatta is preparing left-handed Aashish Dhami as well as right-handers Shankar Rana, Sandeep Sunar and Sunil Dhamala as openers but he will decide on the opening pair only on the match day.

Sheikh and Rijal will lead the middle order with hard hitting Khanal, Dipendra Singh Airee and Yogendra Karki will play down the lower order. In other matches on the opening day, Malaysia will take on Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan are up against Kuwait.