Nepal Announces 15-Member Squad For Asian Games Cricket In Japan

THE SQUAD

The Nepal Olympic Committee confirmed the country's 15-member men's cricket squad for the 2026 Asian Games on September 13, with all-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee named captain. The squad blends Nepal's most recognizable names with fresh faces: legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane, top-order batter Rohit Paudel, seamer Sompal Kami and Karan KC, alongside Aarif Sheikh, Aasif Sheikh, Kushal Bhurtel, Lalit Rajbanshi, Gulshan Jha, Nandan Yadav, Lokesh Bam, Sandeep Jora, Sher Malla and Kushal Malla. Former national cricketer Binod Das will serve as team leader, with Stuart Law as head coach and Abdur Sattar assisting. Lokendra Kunwar and Raman Shiwakoti round out the support staff as medical and technical personnel.

THE GROUP AND THE PATH FORWARD

Cricket at the 20th Asian Games runs from September 19 to October 3 in Japan, with the men's competition starting September 24 at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin. Nepal lands in Group A alongside Afghanistan and hosts Japan, opening against Afghanistan on September 25 before facing Japan the next day. The top two sides from each of the two groups advance to the quarterfinals, where they join India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the four teams seeded directly into the knockout stage as the region's highest-ranked sides.

WHAT NEPAL DID LAST TIME

Nepal's cricket team arrives with a genuine highlight reel from the last edition. At the 2023 Hangzhou Games, Nepal topped its group unbeaten, including a 273-run demolition of Mongolia that still stands as the largest winning margin in T20 international history. That match produced a piece of individual history too: a then 19-year-old Kushal Malla reached his century off just 34 balls, the fastest hundred ever recorded in men's T20Is, as Nepal posted 314 for 3, the first 300-plus total in the format's history. Nepal's run ended in the quarterfinals against India, but the group stage alone rewrote the record books. Malla is back in the 2026 squad, giving Nepal a direct link between the team chasing a medal in Japan and the side that set those records two years earlier.

THE NAMES CARRYING THE MOST WEIGHT

Lamichhane remains Nepal's most closely watched player internationally, a legspinner who has played across multiple T20 leagues and is central to Nepal's hopes of troubling the group's stronger batting lineups. Paudel and Bhurtel carry the top order, while Kami and Karan KC lead an attack built around variety with the new ball. Airee's appointment as captain hands leadership to one of the squad's most experienced all-round performers, with Aasif Sheikh expected to continue behind the stumps.

WHAT'S NEXT

Nepal will need results from both group games, against Afghanistan and Japan, to have any realistic shot at a quarterfinal spot alongside the four automatic qualifiers above them. A repeat of 2023's group-stage dominance would put Nepal in the knockout mix against Asia's full-strength sides for the first time. The squad assembles in Japan in the coming days, with the tournament opening September 24 and Nepal's first match five days later.