Nepali women's U19 Asian Qualifiers games begin today

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Nov. 6: The fight for the only remaining spot at the 2025 ICC U19 Women´s T20 World Cup between 16-team kicks off today (November 6) at the UAE between four teams including Nepal.

The Asian region qualifiers is being participated by Nepal, the host UAE, Kuwait and Thailand. 

The World Cup is being hosted by Malaysia where 10 full members – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand and Ireland – and five best regional teams will be participating. Of the five regional teams, four have been confirmed.

Nigeria, the USA, Samoa and Scotland have qualified from the qualifiers held in Africa, Americas, East Asia-Pacific and Europe regions respectively. Now, the Asian region qualifiers is the only one remaining.

And the four Asian teams will compete in a double round-robin format with the inaugural match being played between the hosts and Kuwait at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai. It will be followed by the face-off between Nepal and Thailand at 3:15 pm Nepali time.

Nepali girls will then face Kuwait and the UAE on November 7 and 9 respectively. In the second round, Nepal faces Thailand, Kuwait and the UAE on November 10, 12 and 13 respectively.

Nepal´s preparation

Nepal has been well prepared for the qualifiers as the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) managed training facilities for the squad since mid-September.

A closed camp began in Lamahi, Dang, from September 15-30 by calling 29 players. They were players who outperformed others in the two national U19 tournaments in Chitwan and Kohalpur.

And in the beginning of October, the CAN selected 20 of the 29 players for the second phase of training. 

With one week left for November, the CAN then revealed a final 14-member squad for the qualifiers. The squad is being led by Puja Mahato and is comprised of Sony Pakhrin, Alisha Kumari Yadav, Sana Prabin, Jyotsnika Marasaini, Kusum Godar, Sabitra Dhami, Krishma Gurung, Manisha Upadhyaya, Riya Sharma, Seemana KC, Sneha Mahara, Rachana Chaudhary, and Trishana BK.

The final squad was then provided with a final training in Delhi, India, where they competed against DDCA U19 Girls in a four-match practice series on October 28, 29, 30 and November 1 before heading 

to Dubai.