Nepal had failed to secure a spot in the Asia Cup 2025 after a poor show in the ACC Premier Cup 2024.
Former Australian batter Stuart Law, who is the current head coach of Nepal, is ambitious for the side to make it to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. But much ahead of that, the team will take on the West Indies in a historic T20I series, starting from September 27. However, the ex-head coach of the Caribbean side has emphasised more to push the associate nation towards mainstream cricket rather than to the upcoming three-match contest.
The coach, who had previously guided teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and West Indies, has been impressed with the Nepal players’ intent to make a mark in the international circuit. He has revealed that not only the involved players, but the whole Nepal cricket community, have that dedication in them to become a Test-playing nation.
“They’re an emerging nation, and they’ve got the ambition to become a Test-playing nation. A lot of things have got to happen before that becomes reality, but the passion is there and the desire is there to get it done, and not just from the players, but also the administration,” said Law to The National.
He also spoke about the different style of play that some of the subcontinental sides need to bring in, who do not excel in the power game in modern T20 cricket. Law discussed why teams like Nepal and Bangladesh are less likely to produce some of the big hitters than the West Indies and Australia, who are known for playing a fierce and attacking brand of cricket.
“Everyone’s talking about the power game. Some teams can’t do that. I worked with Bangladesh. They can’t do it. So we’ve got to play a different game of cricket rather than just go block, block and then try to hit six, because we can’t do that. Guys like Chris Gayle or Andre Russell, [Mitchell] Mitch Marsh, Liam Livingstone, they can do it. We can’t. We weigh 58 kgs at best. We’re not 110kg, 6ft 8in beasts. So we’ve got to find a different way to play,” he added.
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Notably, Nepal had failed to secure a spot in the ongoing ACC Asia Cup 2025 after a poor show in the ACC Premier Cup 2024. The 18th ranked team could not grab the third place in the league after facing a defeat to Hong Kong, who are placed at 24 in the ICC T20I team rankings. However, this was ahead of Law taking up the responsibilities of coaching the developing Nepal team, who was appointed in the role in March 2025.
In his tenure, the team has shown commendable performances to defeat Scotland and the Netherlands in the recent overseas white-ball series. The squad would also hope to put up a tough fight against the Men in Maroons in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), before engaging themselves in the Asia/East Asia-Pacific qualifier tournament to secure a place in the mega ICC T20 tournament.
Rohit Paudel (C), Dipendra Singh Airee, Aasif Sheikh (WK), Sandeep Lamichhane, Kushal Bhurtel, Lokesh Bam, Kushal Malla, Mohammad Adil Alam, Aarif Sheikh, Sundeep Jora, Karan KC, Nandan Yadav, Gulsan Jha, Lalit Rajbanshi, Sompal Kami, Shahab Alam.
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