KATHMANDU: Nepal on Wednesday named their squad for the T20 World Cup in June with Rohit Paudel as captain and boasting the power-hitting of Dipendra Singh Airee.

Airee recently became just the third international batsman to hit six sixes in an over in an international T20 game.

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.

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.

The country’s most high profile star Sandeep Lamichhane iscurrently serving a jail sentence for rape.

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

Airee’s landmark innings came in April against Qatar in Al Amerat.

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

Squad: Rohit Paudel (captain), 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.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2024