Kathmandu, November 22

The three-member selection committee shortlisted 20 players for the last round matches of the ICC World Cricket League Championship against the United Arab Emirates slated for December 6 and 8 at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The selection committee — comprised of International Cricket Council representative Aminul Islam, national cricket team head coach Jagat Tamatta and skipper Paras Khadka — picked up 20 players from 28 cricketers who were in the closed camp training.

The 14-member final squad and four reserved players will be announced later, as per the press release issued by Nepali cricket team’s analyst Raman Shiwakoti.

The squad comprises of skipper Khadka, Anil Kumar Sah, Basant Regmi, Binod Bhandari, Dilip Nath, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gyanendra Malla, Hasim Ansari, Jitendra Kumar Mukhiya, Karan KC, Kushal Bhurtel, Lalit Bhandari, Arif Sheikh, Sagar Pun, Sandeep Lamichhane, Shakti Prasad Gauchan, Sharad Vesawkar, Siddhant Lohani, Sompal Kami and Sushil Kandel.

Mehboob Alam and Saurabh Khanal opted to withdraw their names from the camp due to injuries, while Sushan Bhari, Naresh Budhayer, Bikram Sob, Sunil Dhamala, Anil Kumar Mandal and Rohit Kumar Paudel failed to make it to the squad.

Youth players Anil Kumar Sah and Rohit Kumar Paudel joined the camp after competing in the ACC U-19 Youth Asia Cup held in Malaysia last week. Since, both Nepal and UAE have already been relegated to the ICC World Cricket League Division-II, the outcome of the matches will not make any difference in the Championship standing.

With the completion of 12 matches of the eight-team competition, Nepal are sixth with nine points, while UAE are at the bottom with six points. The Netherlands (18), Papua New Guinea (16), Scotland (15), Hong Kong (14), Kenya (12) currently hold the top five positions, while Namibia (six) are seventh.

Top four teams will earn berths in next year’s ICC World Cup Qualifiers, while bottom four teams will be relegated to the WCL Division-II.