Marquee players at risk of getting outshined

Kathmandu, Dec. 7: After the owners of the eight franchise teams in the Nepal Premier League (NPL) were decided, the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) organised a lucky draw for eight of the best national team players to join the teams as their marquee. 

The eight marquee players are also the highest-paid Nepali players in the inaugural edition of the NPL. However, most of the marquees are being outshined in the early stage of the tournament.

Until Friday, the end of Day 6, 11 matches of the NPL concluded. Except for Sudurpaschim Royals and Lumbini Lions (two games each), six of the teams have played three games each. 

According to the statistics, only two marquees have been able to outperform their respective team members in the first few games of the NPL. They are Lumbini’s Rohit Kumar Paudel and Sudurpaschim’s Dipendra Singh Airee.

Rohit, after a 95-run knock in the second game on Friday, has scored the most runs for his team while he is the second-most run scorer of the tournament with one match in hand. Janakpur Bolts’ Lahiru Milantha, NPL’s top scorer, is ahead of Paudel by three runs.

Similarly, Airee has scored the most runs for Sudurpaschim in their last two encounters. Airee has 100 runs in two games; he is followed by Brandon McMullen with 89 runs.

On the other hand, the other three marquee players good with the bat – Kushal Bhurtel of Pokhara Avengers, Kushal Malla of Chitwan Rhinos and Aasif Sheikh of Janakpur – have been outshined by their team members. 

The condition is similar in the context of bowling for the other three marquees – Sandeep Lamichhane of Biratnagar Kings, Karan KC of Kathmandu Gurkhas and Sompal Kami of Karnali Yaks.

Playing one match less than Bhurtel, Andries Gous has emerged as the best batting choice for Pokhara, mostly after the century on Friday. After Day 6, Gous was the fourth-most run scorer with 124 runs in two games.

Dinesh Kharel, opener for Pokhara, is also outperforming Bhurtel as he has scored 72 runs in three games. Bhurtel, who did not get to bat on Friday, has only six runs in two innings.

Meanwhile, Malla has outperformed Nepali players in his team with the bat. He has 72 runs in three games and the only one outshining him is the former England cricketer, Ravi Bopara (121 runs in 3 games with two half-centuries). Malla has also bagged two wickets in three innings with the ball.

Regarding Sheikh, the first-choice wicketkeeper for the national team, he is left with the chance to shine with the bat alone as he has given the wicket-keeping duty to Milantha. He is also the only marquee to not be active as the captain of the team; Anil Kumar Sah is leading Janakpur as the skipper.

Aasif returned for a duck in the first game but scored 36 off 29 and 33 off 34 in the last two fixtures. He is the second-most run scorer for Janakpur in the NPL behind Milantha; Aasif is only one run ahead of Sah (68 runs in 3 games).

Nevertheless, the three marquee bowlers are the ones who are in a tougher spot. Karan KC and Sompal Kami have two wickets each in three games while Sandeep Lamichhane has only one.

Bipin Sharma, the 16-year-old teenager selected by Karnali Yaks from a talent hunt, has outperformed Kami. He has four wickets in two of the three games he played for Karnali.

Regarding Kathmandu Gurkhas, Shahab Alam and Gerhard Erasmus have claimed more than double wickets than KC; they both have four wickets each in the last three games.

Nonetheless, Lamichhane is at the bottom of the list of wicket-taking bowlers. He took his only wicket in Biratnagar’s third game against Lumbini Lions on December 4. Anil Kharel is the highest wicket-taker for Biratnagar with three wickets in three games.

Overall, Chitwan’s Sohail Tanvir, the former Pakistani unorthodox pacer, is the highest wicket-taker in the NPL currently; he has eight wickets in three games. He is followed by Janakpur’s Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi (7 wickets). Sudurpaschim’s Naren Saud and Abinash Bohara alongside Pokhara’s Bipin Khatri have five wickets each.

In the context of batting, of the 10 most run scorers, only four – Paudel, Airee, Sumit Maharjan and Lokesh Bam – are Nepali players. Former international cricket greats Shikhar Dhawan, Martin Guptill and Ravi Bopara alongside new cricketers like Milantha, Gous and McMullen are in the Top 10 list.

But with at least four matches remaining for all teams, the marquees still have the chance to end the first edition of the NPL on a high.