Opener Subash Khakurel was left out and middle order mainstay Sharad Vesawkar returned from the injury as Nepal announce 18-member preliminary team for the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 Asian (Eastern Region) Qualifier.

Nepal are participating in the seven-team tournament slated for October 3-12 in Malaysia from where the top three teams will make it to the Asian Regional Qualifier. Along with hosts Malaysia and Nepal, Singapore, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Thailand are the other teams competing in the Eastern Region Qualifier.

Khakurel, who had looked sluggish in the recently concluded ACC Asia Cup Qualifiers in Malaysia, had returned to the national side after three years for Nepal’s first ever One Day International (ODI) series which they played away to the Netherlands on August 1 and 3. The right-handed batsman played the Asia Cup Qualifiers but despite notching up his maiden ODI half century against the United Arab Emirates, Khakurel has ended up losing his place.

Returning to the team for the closed-camp was Vesawkar who had serious finger injury in the first ODI match against the Netherlands. Vesawkar’s absence dearly cost Nepal as they finished fourth in the Asia Cup Qualifiers from where Hong Kong managed to scrape through as tournament champions and played Asian Test giants India and Pakistan.

Emerging cricketer Rohit Kumar Paudel, meanwhile, has been released from the national team to join the U-19 team for the upcoming ACC U-19 Asia Cup slated for September 29 to October 7 in Bangladesh. Paras Khadka has been named the captain of the side that also consists of Anil Kumar Sah, Basanta Regmi, Binod Bhandari, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gyanendra Malla, Karan KC, Lalit Singh Bhandari, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Aarif Sheikh, Sagar Pun, Sompal Kami and Sandeep Lamichhane, who all featured in the ACC Asia Cup Qualifiers.

The national team closed-camp, which begins from Thursday at the TU grounds, will give another opportunity to Sunil Dhamala, Shahab Alam, Dipesh Shrestha and Pradeep Airee to fight their way into the national team.