Nepal are taking on Malaysia U-22 here on Sunday in what is going to be their first competitive football match after their triumphant South Asian Games campaign.

The match at the Tunaku Abdul Rahman Stadium will also be the first assignment for newly-recruited Japanese coach Gyotoku Koji who took over from Patrick Aussems. Koji has taken the match as a test of the footballers whom he has not seen play in competitive matches.

“We are going for a test of the youngsters. The friendly is less significant and since Malaysia have an U-22 team, we are going with youngsters too,” said Koji ahead of the match. The Nepali squad is dominated by the presence of the young footballers who were part of the teams that won the Bangabandhu Gold Cup and SA Games gold. 

Experienced custodian Kiran Chemjong is back in the side with Bishal Shrestha standing by as a replacement. Another experienced player Bharat Khawas has also overcome his injury to join the squad that also sees the return of Sujal Shrestha, Rabin Shrestha and Jitendra Karki. 

Devendra Tamang, Ranjit Dhimal and Bijay Dhimal have been given opportunity after missing the two previous tournaments. Koji wanted to look towards the future. “Most of the guys have made it from the squads that won previous two tournaments and they are young. This will be a good test for me to pick good players and hopefully we can identify good talents for future,” added the coach.

Biraj Maharjan will once again skipper the Nepali squad after leading the country to back-to-back titles. In absence of influential midfielder Anjan Bista, striker Bimal Gharti Magar along with defenders Aditya Chaudhary and Ananta Tamang, Maharjan believed it would be a good opportunity for the new players to prove their mettle.

“We are playing our first match in more than a month and there are few changes in the squad too. We are preparing to give our new players chances and hopefully they prove themselves,” said Maharjan. While Bista and Tamang are currently in the Netherlands playing for Spanish nomadic club Marbella, Gharti Magar — also awaiting a departure for Netherlands — and Chaudhary are recovering from injuries.