Nepal look to end winless run in T20 WC against debutants Italy
Fighting hard but not quite there, Nepal will look to go the distance and end a winless run in the T20 World Cup when they face tournament debutants Italy in a Group C match, here on Thursday. Having made their debut in the competition 12 years ago, Nepal recorded a couple of wins in the 2014 edition when they defeated Hong Kong and Afghanistan but the Himalayan nation has gone winless since.
Interestingly, Nepal have come agonisingly close on three occasions to beat Test-playing nations but ended up on the wrong side of the result. In 2024, they lost to South Africa by just one run and against Bangladesh by 21 runs. But the four-run defeat in a heroic chase against England last Sunday here at the Wankhede Stadum has firmly placed them in the spotlight and created a buzz around Nepalese cricketers.
They have shown tremendous grit having honed their skills in one of the toughest formats with minimal exposure to international cricket. A 10-year gap in playing T20 World Cups notwithstanding, Nepal matched England — a two-time world champion — almost on each count on the field and displayed their resolve on the biggest platform.
Neither were they bogged down by the grandeur of the stage or the weight of the expectations.As many as 17,008 fans at the Wankhede Stadium made noise for the ‘Rhinos’, which matched the decibel levels usually witnessed when the home team plays here. In Kushal Bhurtel, Nepal have the top-order aggressor who can provide aggressive starts while the formidable middle-order comprising Dipendra Singh Airee, skipper Rohit Paudel and Aarif Sheikh provides them a lot of firepower.
Lokesh Bam threatened to cause a real upset against England with his brutal stroke play which left the likes of Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid stunned, even as the big-hitting Karan KC took a backseat. However, there were a few areas of concern which Nepal will want to address as they move ahead.
