KATHMANDU: For the team captain Rohit Kumar Paudel, the moment Nepal once again reached the ICC T-20 World Cup is an experience beyond words.

Sharing his joy on social media, he says, ‘We dreamt, we believed, and finally, we achieved success.’ Now Nepal will fly its flag in the T-20 World Cup to be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka next year.

Nepal, under the captaincy of Paudel, secured its second World Cup journey and third overall after UAE defeated Samoa in Wednesday’s Super Six stage match. Samoa, having lost the previous two matches (group stage and Super Six), was under pressure to win this game. However, chasing a huge target of 226 runs set by the UAE, which had played in the World Cup twice in 2014 and 2022, Samoa could only manage 148 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs.

With this result, undefeated Nepal and Oman secured their place in the World Cup with two matches remaining. Both teams have 6-6 points in the points table. Oman is ahead based on net run rate, and Nepal is in the second position.

Although the remaining matches will determine the top spot, Nepal and Oman are safe as the top three teams will qualify for the World Cup. This is Nepal’s third T-20 World Cup participation. Nepal first debuted in the T-20 World Cup in 2014 under the captaincy of Paras Khadka. At that time, Nepal had a great start, defeating Hong Kong and Afghanistan.

However, they missed out on advancing to the next stage after losing the final match against Bangladesh by eight wickets. The same Paras not only paved the way for the World Cup but also inspired players to dream of reaching that stage. Along with many players like Dipendra Singh Airee, Kushal Malla, Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh, and Sandeep Lamichhane, Nepal has succeeded in following the same path for the second consecutive time under Rohit’s captaincy recently.

Paras writes, ‘In the journey between dream and reality, we are moving towards the third World Cup. Heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to everyone associated with Nepal Cricket. We are all starting a new chapter of this wonderful journey together.’

Nepal did play qualifiers twice in 2015 and 2019 under Paras’s captaincy, but failed to achieve success. In the Global Qualifiers held in Ireland and Scotland, Nepal played 6 matches but could not defeat any team other than America. Four years later, Nepal’s performance remained similarly poor.

The team was stopped in the Asian region after being defeated by 82 runs against host Singapore and by four wickets against Qatar. After that, Paras stepped down from the captaincy and moved towards a leadership role. Since then, the ‘steering’ of the Nepali team has been taken up by Gyanendra Malla, Sandeep Lamichhane, and Rohit Paudel, who have led the team in turns.

In the Global Qualifiers held in Oman in 2022, Nepal reached the semi-finals under the captaincy of Sandeep Lamichhane. However, Nepal, which performed excellently in the group stage to reach the final four, lost to the UAE, closing the door to the World Cup. But in the next qualifier held on home ground in 2023, Nepal got a new captain, Rohit. Under the leadership of the youngest captain, Nepal not only took revenge for the defeat against the UAE in the previous qualifier but also made a comeback to the World Cup after a decade with an eight-wicket victory. Since then, Nepal has not had to look back.

Nepal’s performance in the World Cup held in the West Indies and America last year was mixed. Nepal, which suffered a six-wicket loss against the Netherlands in the first group stage match, could not play the match against Sri Lanka due to rain. They lost to South Africa by just one run, despite coming close to victory.

Nepal was already stopped in the group stage before the final match loss against Bangladesh by 21 runs. At that time, Rohit had said, ‘Our journey has not stopped; it has just begun. We will return to this stage again, stronger.’ Nepal gathered many learnings from that participation, which seems to have translated into success. Rohit also accepts this.

‘The dream has now turned into reality. This moment is dedicated to every Nepali who believed in us and supported us. But the dream does not end here. This is just the beginning of a new journey,’ he writes. Under the captaincy of Rohit, who set a record by leading the team to the World Cup twice, Nepal’s consistently excellent performance has won the trust of not only the supporters but also the world of cricket.

Nepal’s goal, which won the historic T-20 I series 2-1 against Test nation West Indies before going to Oman, will now be to defeat similar teams. Let’s hope Nepal plays such an innings again in the World Cup and advances beyond the group stage.