Women’s T20I series in Uganda: Opportunity for exposure as World Cup qualifiers prepare
Kathmandu: The Nepali women’s cricket team has the opportunity to play its second international series in a month.
After playing a 3-match series against Thailand and the Netherlands at home last month, Nepal is now playing a series away from home.
The Nepali women’s team, which is winless in the home series, is now traveling to Uganda to play a T20I series against Hong Kong and Namibia along with the home team.
Nepal had previously played a five-match series against Uganda at home and has also played against Hong Kong at various times. This will be Nepal’s first meeting in women’s cricket against Namibia.
Nepal is ranked 21st, Hong Kong 22nd, Uganda 18th and Namibia 17th in the ICC Women’s T20I rankings. Thus, this series will also be an opportunity for Nepal to improve its ranking.
A 14-member squad has been announced for the series under the captaincy of Indu Burma. The team, including two new players, left for Uganda on Wednesday.
The women’s T20I series held in Nepal last month marked the return of international women’s cricket to home soil after a long hiatus. The series was organized by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), which had not played international matches on home soil for more than two and a half years.
Players also say that it is great to get the opportunity to play another cricket series in such a short period of time. Young cricketer Pooja Mahato also said that it will be a good help for more experience and exposure.
“For us, it’s an opportunity to play matches again in a short period of time, it helps us gain a lot of exposure,” Pooja told Online News. “We will try to do much better than the last series.”
Similarly, CAN spokesperson Chumbi Lama said that all these matches are being held for match exposure. ‘These matches are for match exposure, they will be very important matches in terms of enabling our women’s team to compete with world-class teams,’ he said.
This time, two more young players have been added to the series, which will not only balance the team but also give them exposure to playing international cricket.
Preparations for T20 World Cup qualifiers
The qualifying tournament for the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup is also being held this year. The Asian qualifiers are scheduled to be held in May. This series will also be meaningful for that.
The Nepali team, which has not been able to perform impressively in previous qualifiers, has a chance to qualify for the World Cup with a different and improved performance this time, with the arrival of some more young players.
This series will help them establish a rhythm and build consistent performance for the qualifiers. Captain Indu Verma also said that this is a good opportunity to prepare for the important matches to come and a good opportunity to make a comeback from the recent defeat.
Similarly, Pooja also says that the team’s main objective is to qualify for the World Cup, adding that the qualifying tournament before that is very important.
“Our main target is to qualify for the World Cup, and this series will be a good way for us to prepare for the qualifiers,” said Pooja.
Opportunity to improve ranking
Nepal’s ICC rankings had slipped after they were winless in the series held in Nepal last month. Nepal, which was in 20th place before the series, had subsequently slipped to 21st place.
Nepal can improve its ranking through this series. Pooja Mahato also has a similar opinion on this. ‘This is another opportunity for us to improve our ranking. For that, we have to play good cricket in Uganda and we will,’ she said.
Coach Manoj Katuwal also said that since they are playing against a team slightly above them, they will perform well and return to winning the series title. He said that this will also help in improving the ranking.
Expectations for improvement in fitness
Questions have been raised about the fitness of women cricketers for a long time. Due to fitness, Nepal often remained away from victory due to problems in running between the wickets and fielding.
Along with the need for players to pay attention to this problem, which was also seen in the last series, the demand for a fitness trainer was also rising. Now, the team has also got a fitness trainer and it is expected that this will improve fitness to some extent.
Captain Indu Varma said that a lot of work has been done to improve fitness and fielding. ‘We have done a lot of work to improve fielding and fitness, a fitness trainer has also come,’ she said, ‘The team’s preparation has also been very good, we will return with a win.’
Similarly, coach Katuwal has also expressed confidence that he will return to winning the series this time as he has brought in a trainer to prepare for fitness issues with more young players joining the team.
The women’s cricket team can be expected to perform better than in previous games, as they have been able to play international cricket for a certain period of time and have also worked specifically to improve the team’s weaknesses.
But for that, the players have to perform with the same mindset even when they take to the field. If they can strengthen their mindset, this series can start the process of raising the standard of Nepali women’s cricket.
Talking about the series, Nepal will play Namibia on March 8 (Falgun 24), Uganda on Falgun 25, and Hong Kong on Falgun 26. Similarly, they will play Namibia on Falgun 28, Uganda on Falgun 29, and Hong Kong on Falgun 30.
After all these matches are over, the top 2 teams will play in the final.
Nepal team:
- Indu Burma (captain),
- Rubina Chhetri,
- Pooja Mahato,
- Alisha Kumari Yadav,
- Bindu Rawal,
- Samjhana Khadka,
- Mamta Chaudhary,
- Kavita Joshi,
- Riya Sharma,
- Sana Praveen,
- Roma Thapa,
- Rajmati Airi,
- Rachana Chaudhary and
- Ishwari Bista
