Nepal readies on local soil for ICC Men’s T/20

Head coach of the Nepal national cricket team, Monty Desai, said his team is adapting well to local conditions as they prepare to compete in the 2024 ICC Men’s T/20 tournament.

He told SEARCHLIGHT last Tuesday, May 14, 2024, that although it is their first time in the Caribbean, the players have responded positively the conditions.

“We were very deliberate about this, so we came into St. Vincent (and the Grenadines) early because we have two World Cup games here later on, the 49 year old head coach said during a work out at the Park Hill Playing Field.

“ Three days…so far, I think the boys have adjusted and adapted well.”

He said this was evident in Tuesday’s game which Nepal won by four wickets playing against a Windward Islands team.

Responding to a question about his players, the coach said he does not like to spotlight any single person. He, however spoke about their current opener, Kushal Burtal, as well as Asif Shaikh “who had a wonderful opening stance against Zimbabwe in World Cup qualifiers last year, so some of those things which we have seen, we want to see that more consistently out there”.

Desai added that his mainly young team “has a bit of experience- a bit of youngsters in this team, but overall, even the people who have got experience, they are only mid-25”.

Among those with some experience are captain, Rohit Paudel, “who scored a lot of runs against West Indies A…and Dipen Rairi (who)has been a good finisher for this team…so a lot to look forward to”.