Sports
Nepal announce squad
Laxmi Chaudhary and Roma Thapa were handed debut as Sonu Khadka and Ritu Kanojiya returned to the national team as the final squad for the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifiers for Asia Region was announced on Thursday.Laxmi Chaudhary and Roma Thapa were handed debut as Sonu Khadka and Ritu Kanojiya returned to the national team as the final squad for the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifiers for Asia Region was announced on Thursday.
An independent selection committee named Chaudhary and Thapa in the 14-member final squad for one of the most important events in Nepali women’s cricket following their performance in a closed-camp at the TU Stadium.
The Asia Region Qualifiers begins from November 20 in Thailand where Nepal will face China, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Hong Kong along with the hosts.
Only the champions of the Asia Region will make it to the 2018 Women’s World Twenty20 Global Qualifiers which will be hosted by the Netherlands. The Asian champions will join Bangladesh, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, the Netherland and Uganda in the Global Qualifiers.
The Asia Qualifiers will see Kanojiya break a hiatus of seven years for the national women’s team having previously played in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. Khadka, once a regular member of the women’s team, hasn’t played for the senior side after she was fielded for the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Rubina Chhetri was already retained as the skipper with Sita Rana Magar named her deputy. Jyoti Pandey is the wicketkeeper-batswoman in the team that also includes Sarita Magar, Nery Thapa, Indu Barma, Karuna Bhandari, Sabnam Rai, Kajal Shrestha and Sangita Rai. Kabita Kunwar, Nitu Bhandari and Rekha Rawal have been named reserve players.
Out of the 22 players that were kept in the first round of closed camp, Shobha Ale, Alish Chhetri, Binu Budhamagar, Saraswati Chaudhary and Anjali Chand were axed out. Samson Jung Thapa is currently looking after the women’s team. Thapa is also in the selection committee headed by ICC Representative Aminul Islam and also includes Nepali cricket’s head coach Jagat Tamatta and skipper Chhetri.