KATHMANDU, AUGUST 10

The Cricket Association of Nepal announced the 14-member squad for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier to be held in Malaysia later this month.

The CAN has included three new faces - Puja Mahato, Khushi Dangol and Rubi Poudar - in the team for the Qualifiers slated for August 31 to September 9 in Kuala Lumpur. The three players, Mahato, Dangol and Poudar have been called in the national team for the first time, while Kritika Marasini, Jyoti Pandey and Saraswoti Chaudhary failed to make the cut.

Rubina Chhetri has been retained as skipper, while Sita Rana Magar, Indu Barma, Bindu Rawal, Kabita Kunwar, Kabita Joshi, Samjhana Khadka, Ishwori Bista, Kajol Shrestha, Apsari Begam and Asmina Karmacharya are the other members of the team. The team has been training under coach Samson Jung Thapa, while the CAN has appointed former India international Devika Palshikhar as the batting consultant.

Nepal are in Group A in the Asia Qualifier along with hosts Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar, while China, Myanmar, Thailand, Kuwait and Hong Kong are in Group B. Top two teams each from both the groups after the league stage will make it to the semi-finals, while the two finalists will earn berths in next year's Global Qualifiers.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 11, 2023, of The Himalayan Times