T20 World Cup 2026 curtain raiser

In the 2024 edition, Nepal’s Rhinos surprised fans with outstanding performances against established cricketing nations such as South Africa and Bangladesh, ultimately crashing out of the competition with just one point.

The team has matured since. It is a more settled, confident squad, still young. Two seasons of the Nepal Premier League means that key players have spent more time leading, performing, making decisions in high pressure T20 scenarios. The tournament has also created many more Nepali cricket fans, which means the team will also be playing to visiting Nepalis and the home crowd on live feeds of the matches at the 2026 T20 World Cup this month.

And the historic 2-1 series victory over the West Indies in September 2025 means that the players know they can compete at the highest level. England, Italy, West Indies and Scotland are the other nations in Nepal’s Group C, and none of those teams will be going into their matches against Nepal expecting an easy victory.

The team also won all of its games in the qualifiers for this tournament, and comfortably defeated the UAE in a warm-up match on Tuesday. Nepal seems to be in a buffer zone between being an associate nation and at the level of Full ICC members like Ireland, at least in T20 cricket. This tournament will be the test.

After a further warmup game against Canada on 6 February, Nepal play heavyweights England two days later at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, before the much easier contest against Italy on 12 February. The Wankhede is usually friendly to batters.

Then the team plays the West Indies on Valentine’s Day, and Scotland two days later. The Windies team this time will be a much stronger one than the one Nepal beat in the series. After all, they have won this trophy twice.

Eden Gardens is traditionally spin-friendly later in matches. Which is good news for Nepal’s bowling attack, especially the pair of leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane and left-arm orthodox Lalit Rajbhanshi who will be important in the middle innings, to bring down the run rate and take wickets after the powerplay overs are done.

Dipendra Singh Airee is an important cog. While his batting is a little inconsistent, Airee barely gives away any runs with the ball and gets important breakthroughs from the field. His skills were on full display in the warm up match against the UAE: 1/12 from three overs with the ball, a signature direct hit runout, and most importantly a 50 off 31 to stablise the innings with Aarif Sheikh after the top three were sent back underwhelmingly.

This strong top three of openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh, and captain Rohit Poudel will be crucial to Nepal’s success. If two out of the three can do well in a particular game then the team has a great chance of putting up or chasing down a high score.

Gulshan Jha, 19, will play the critical finisher role in the later overs. Jha chases boundaries from the first ball he faces and reliably gets, say, 18 off 8. If he can figure out how to turn this into 35 off 16, then Nepal would be defending scores in the 160s or 170s instead of the 140s -- a huge mental difference.

A unique thing about the Nepali squad is how many all-rounders there are. Airee is the sixth best T20 all-rounder in the world as per ICC rankings. Bhurtel, Paudel, Aarif Sheikh, Karan KC, Gulshan Jha and Sompal Kami are all fixtures in the starting lineup and they can all bat and bowl. 

This gives the team many options to throw at the opposition’s batting attack, even though perhaps in the long term the team would be better off if most of these players focused on their main skill.

Another strength is Nepal’s fielding. Catching standards have drastically improved in this young Nepali side coming into its prime. Avoiding dropped catches is also important for in-game momentum and morale. The top two teams from each group go through.

For Nepal to get through, a realistic scenario would be to beat Italy and Scotland, the first easy, the second competitive but very possible. Scotland are in the tournament only because Bangladesh were kicked out over refusing to play in India over security concerns.

They would also have to win against either West Indies or England, which would be a major statement to the cricketing world. With a bit of luck, West Indies seems the more likely upset, and England might just feel the pressure of the opening match and of being the heavy favourite.

With matches in neighbouring India, a lot of in-stadium support is expected at the games. A strong performance at the competition would help in keeping Nepali cricket on its current upward trajectory.