KATHMANDU: Allrounder Paras Khadka has been handed over the captaincy of the senior national cricket team for the first time ahead of Binod Das here today.

Khadka was named the skipper of the 14-member Nepali squad announced here for the ACC Twenty20 Cup slated for November 22-30 in United Arab Emirates (UAE). A national selection committee of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) headed by Arun Kumar Aryal named the 14-member team and three reserve players.

The team includes five players from Region-III (Kathmandu), three from Region-IV (Bhairahawa), two each from Region-II (Birgunj) and Region-VI (Baitadi) and one apiece from Region-I (Biratnagar) and Region-V (Nepalgunj). Apart from skipper Khadka, Gyanendra Malla, Paresh Lohani, Dipendra Chaudhary and Sharad Vesawkar are from Kathmandu. Shakti Gauchan, Amrit Bhattarai and Basanta Regmi represent Bhairahawa. Likewise, Das and Sanjam Regmi are from Birgunj while Naresh Budhayer and Binod Bhandary are from Baitadi. Mehboob Alam is from Biratnagar and Mahesh Chhetry from Nepalgunj. Rahul Kumar BK of Bhairahawa, Ajay Rajbanshi of Biratnagar and Chandra Saud of Baitadi were named as reserves.

National team regular Raj Kumar Pradhan was left of the team as the spinner is out of the country while Budhayer and Binod Bhandari are making their first international appearances. Former Sri Lankan Test international Roy Luke Dias is the coach and Manjoor Alam Khan the assistant coach. Naresh Kumar Shrestha is the team manager.

Nepal are drawn in Group B along with Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia and Bahrain. Afghanistan, the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and China are in Group 'A'. Top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals. In the first edition in 2007, Nepal failed to make it to the second round after two wins and as many losses in Kuwait.

The new captain Khadka has a very successful history as captain in the international age-group tournaments as well as for Kathmandu in the last one year. Khadka led Nepal to 2007 ACC U-19 Elite Cup victory in Malaysia before guiding his country to the Plate Championship final in 2008 U-19 World Cup held in Malaysia. He also led Nepal to the second round of the U-17 Asia Cup held in India.

At the domestic front, he led Region-III (Kathmandu) to maiden triple national championships. Under his captaincy, Kathmandu won Sintez MM Twenty20 National Tournament, Springwood National Tournament and Springwood National Twenty20 Tournament. Khadka also led Kathmandu to Wai Wai U-19 National Tournament championship, putting an end to Bhairahawa's four-time winning streak in the biannual event.

Das, who has been leading the national side since 2005, is considered one of the most successful captains. Nepal has reached semi-finals in all the 50-over tournaments that Das has captained. Under his leadership, Nepal finished third in the World Cup Qualifier Division-V in Malaysia (2005) and ICC World Cricket League Division-V in Jersey (2008) apart from fourth-place finishes in the ACC Trophy (2006) and ACC Elite Cup in Malaysia (2008).