Nepal announced a 40-member preliminary squad on Sunday for the ICC U-19 World Cup Division -1 Asia Qualifier campaign.

A selection committee headed by Venkatapathi  Raju, who is the Chief Development Officer of ICC-Asia, Nepal head coach Jagat Tamatta and U-19 team coach Binod Das selected the squad for the July Qualifier based on last year’s a nationwide trial for the ACC U-19 Asia Cup held in Sri Lanka in December last year as well as various national tournaments. The closed camp starts in Kathmandu from Tuesday.

The 12-day event is the gateway to the 2018 Under-19 World Cup to be held in New Zealand. Nepal open their campaign with a match against hosts Singapore on July 17 in the tournament to be played in a double round robin league. Nepal’s other fixtures include Malaysia (July 18, 24) and Afghanistan (July 20, 25). They play Singapore for the second time on July 21. Only the top team qualify for the U-19 World Cup.

Squad

Sandeep Lamichhane, Asif Sheikh, Aadil Khan, Anil Kumar Shah, Bhim Sharki, Prakash KC, Dipendra Singh Airee, Kamal Singh Airee, Pawan Sharraf, Sandeep Sunar, Nandan Yadav, Rohit Kumar Paudel, Rabindra Jung Shahi, Abhinash Karn, Bikram Kumar Bhusal, Shahab Alam, Sushant Singh Thapa, Kishore Mahato, Pranit Thapa Magar, Sumit Maharjan, Sandeep Jora, Jitendra Singh Thakuri, Bipin Rawal, Aschal Tharu Chaudhary, Bijay Rana, Pradeep Tandon, Rashid Khan, Rijan Dhakal, Sagar Bhandari, Dhiraj Shahi, Mohammad Hussien, Divyanshu Mallik, Bijay Chaudhary, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Samsaad Sheikh, Ayub Chand, Firtosh Ansari, Anil Kharel, Dev Khanal, Lokesh Chand