Team Nepal eyes new heights of cricketing glory in T20 World Cup

 

Come February 8th,the men’s national cricket team of Nepal will be under the spotlight when their  campaign in the  ICCMen’s Twenty20 World  Cup gets underway in Mumbai, India.

They take on heavyweight England  in the opener of the Group C match.Apart  from Nepal and England,West Indies,Scotland and Italy are the other teams in the group .

This  is Nepal’s third World Cup appearance .They made their  World Cup debut  in  2014 in Bangladesh in an impressive manner.

The team then led by Paras Khadka  recorded wins against Afghanistan and Hongkong, and went down fighting to the hosts Bangladesh.The competition provided them the big opportunity to  display their potential to the cricketing world,which they did to earn praise and recognition from all quarters.

From there on  the  national teams across all  age categories  have been making steady  and encouraging progress  even though they still face significant challenges in domestic cricket on all fronts of development.

In the 2024 World Cup held in the United States and the West Indies,despite losing three matches,Nepal came  within striking distance of  registering the biggest upset of the tournament against South Africa before losing by a heartbreaking solitary run at the end.

In spite of the  defeat Nepal’s  bold performance won hearts and minds of cricket aficionados across the  globe.

Since  between then and now they have been  playing both formats ( T20 & ODI) of the sport on a regular basis. Besides, CAN is doing the right  thing by giving players the much needed quality  international  exposure as part of the preparations for major international tournaments with regularity.

This has helped  players  gain invaluable experience,improve their performance, build confidence and to work on their game.

Undoubtedly,presently it is a  much better outfit hungry for bigger success.They have improved significantly  in every  department of the game.Batting,the team’s weakest link over the years has improved considerably.

Now the team skippered by Rohit Paudel for the second  consecutive  World Cup is all set to  roll out the dice and look very determined to not only improve their performance but  make noteworthy inroads in the tournament.

The ultimate goal  for them is to make it to the next  round and beyond. Keep in mind, the two top teams  from each group move to the Super 8s. It may be recalled that in their  last two World Cup  outings their challenge was restricted to the group stage.

The squad picked for the championship is more or less studded with  the majority of players that  played in the last World Cup. By and large, it is a  youthful, talented and experienced team. 

Talented bowler duo Sher Malla and  Nandan Yadav are the  two new faces in the team .They will be looking  forward to making their debut match for Nepal.

Nepal advanced  to the  championship round, following their highly impressive performance in the final qualifying round . They ended the qualifiers atop the standings and did not  concede a single match.

Furthermore, in the first ever T20 series against the West Indies,they made history by winning 2-1.

Under  the new Australian head coach Stuart Law they are showing  signs of improvement and turning things around.

Nepal faces  a big challenge in the World Cup opener against formidable Test playing  England who are overwhelming favorites to win.

They can expect to be fully tested  on all fronts of the game. Given the strengths of the opposition, it  will require a tremendous  concerted effort,coupled with individual brilliance, highest level of consistency,laser focus,rock solid commitment, competitiveness, discipline  and fighting spirit on their part.

In  a tough match like  this there is virtually no room for mediocrity,loose play and inconsistency.

Every aspect of their performance,be it batting or bowling or fielding has to be of the highest order.

Especially the top order batters  must bat with a strong sense of responsibility, confidence, consistency and discipline.They have  to  apply themselves as much as possible and  dig deep to  keep the run flowing.

Likewise,the bowlers have to throw in everything to maintain  pace, accuracy, length and line throughout their spells.

Fielders must  be alert, focused, prevent overthrows, display excellent reflexes, put in extra effort to save singles to apply pressure on batters.To add, they cannot afford to squander  opportunities to run and catch out batters. 

Team Nepal  must  up the ante and fire on all cylinders.The players have to  put in every bit of effort, possess a winning  mindset and maintain peak  performance,play to their potential and  rise to the occasion ,and make the most of the chance to prove themselves.

Taking into account Team Nepal’s victories against the United Arab Emirates and Canada in warm up matches ,there is  every   reason to feel optimistic about their chances to make an impact  in the World Cup.

Carrying the underdog tag against England,the West Indies and Scotland, there is less pressure on Nepal and they have nothing much to lose. 

The key is they must step up in a big way, put  the pieces together  and perform  at their best to defy odds stacked against them and upset the applecarts.  

 

I strongly believe  Nepal is  favorites against  World Cup debutants Italy, however ,they cannot afford to underestimate them.

Without a doubt, this  is one glorious opportunity for Nepal to  create and write history on the global stage .Let us hope that they scale new heights of cricket glory.