Kathmandu, November 22

A three-member selection committee today announced a 52-member preliminary squad for the ACC U-19 Asia Cup slated to be held in Sri Lanka from December 8-22.

The committee headed by ICC’s Asia Development Officer Venkatapathy Raju,  Nepal national cricket team head coach Jagat Tamatta and U-19 coach Binod Das picked up the 52 players following the talent hunt programmes held at six different centres. In the absence of regular tournament, Cricket Association of Nepal had called the aspiring players for trial at Kathmandu, Dhangadhi, Nepalgunj, Birtnagar, Bhairahawa and Kalaiya.

Among the selected players, Sandeep Sunar, Dipendra Singh Airee and Sandeep Lamichhane played in the ICC U-19 World Cup held in Bangladesh in January and February, while Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi and Nandan Kumar Yadav were in the reserve list. Similarly, Kamal Singh Airee was the member of the squad that took part in the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifiers in Malaysia last year, while Avinash Karn and Sagar Bhandari were in the closed camp training for the U-19 team.

Other members of the preliminary squad are Mukund Yadav, Sandeep Dhungana, Firtosh Ansari, Aasif Sheikh, Anil Kumar Sah, Aschal Tharu Chaudhary, Rijan Dhakal, Rashid Khan, Pawan Sharraf, Rit Gautam, Jitendra Singh Thakuri, Pradeep Tandon, Sundeep Johra, Aayushman Bam, Pranay Shah, Kamal Khatri, Palden Lama, Shuvankar Urao, Suman Pandey, Rohit Poudel, Dev Khanal, Prakash KC, Dhiraj Shahi, Sah Alam, Bikram Bhusal, Ravindra Shahi, Sushant Singh Thapa, Pranit Thapa Magar, Bijay Chaudhary, Afzal Khan, Lokesh Chand, Bhim Sharki, Roman Bam, Arjun Saud, Suraj Aier, Bipin Rawal, Anil Kumar Thapa, Kishore Mahato, Divyanshu Mallik, Bikram Thagunna, Mohammed Hussein, Anil Bishwakarma, Samsad Alam and  Aman Panthi.

The 52 players will be divided into four teams and they will play double round robin matches from November 25. “We will pick up around 22 players for the close camp training for the U-19 Asia Cup after assessing their performances in the matches,” said national team head coach Tamatta.