Rising Stars Shine Nepal’s T20 Triumphs & World Cup Squad Revealed

The 21-year-old Paudel has been among the runs in an ongoing unofficial T20 series against the West Indies A as he led the team in the opening win with a 54-ball 112.

Meanwhile, Airee recently became the third male batter to hit six sixes in an over in T20Is during the ACC Men’s Premier Cup game against Qatar.

He joined India’s Yuvraj Singh, who made his runs off England’s Stuart Broad in Durban in the 2007 T20 World Cup, and West Indian slugger Kieron Pollard who hammered Sri Lanka’s Akila Dananjaya in Antigua in 2021.

For the unversed, Dipendra Singh Airee also holds the record for scoring the fastest half-century in the history of T20 cricket in a record-breaking Asian Games match between Nepal and Mongolia.

Nepal, who will be making their second appearance in the T20 World Cup after their debut in 2014, lost the next two matches to trail the five-match series 2-1.

Aarif Sheikh, Bibek Yadav, and Aakash Chand miss out on the 15-man World Cup squad.

Nepal will play its World Cup opener against the Netherlands in Dallas on June 4. They will also play group games against South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Nepal squad for T20 World Cup
Rohit Paudel (c), Aasif Sheikh, Anil Kumar Sah, Kushal Bhurtel, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Lalit Rajbanshi, Karan KC, Gulshan Jha, Sompal Kami, Pratis GC, Sundeep Jora, Abinash Bohara, Sagar Dhakal, Kamal Singh Airee