The Journey of a young captain : Rohit Kumar Paudel

Authors: Samip Nepal & Ashesh Kafle

The rise of Nepali cricket itself has been a magical ride from those swarm of Division 5 to now mountain top ICC League 2. The cricket is Nepal is ever growing since the dawn of ICC T-20 World Cup 2015 in Bangladesh. It has come a long way and so have Nepalese pool of cricketers and in particularly, today’s game hero Rohit Paudel. Nepalese batting has been almost being a daily soap opera with our woes in batting form continuing almost a decade. It is starting to be bright with many bright batsman coming up in the national side. Nepal has been batting really good in this series and there has been a stalwart in this prominent side with the name Rohit Kumar Paudel.

The talisman in Nepalese Cricket

Nepalese opening batting is rather inconsistent and in the moments when our top order batsman tumble, when the team is unable to score runs, he always steps up as a formidable middle order batsman who scores with class and precision. Rohit's understanding of the game and situation reflects the maturity in him. In just 20 years of age, he has established himself as one of the finest batsman among the Associate teams and his stats speaks for itself averaging over 38 scoring 764 (most runs as Nepali Batsman) in just 25 games. He ain’t a hard hitting batsman but a player who builds his game gradually assessing the situation. To captain this enthusiastic Nepali side with such elegance and audacity at such young age just shows how much he has grown as a sports person. Realizing how good Paras Khadka was in his days and how well Rohit is performing these days, it’s not a mistake to say that Rohit has morphed himself as important pillar in Nepalese batting order as Paras was for his side. But this incredible journey has a long story.

Man of records: Rohit Kumar Paudel

• the fourth-youngest player to make his debut in an ODI at the age of 15 years and 335 days
• October 2018, the leading run-scorer for Nepal in the 2018 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup, with 161 runs in three matches. 
• the youngest male cricketer to score an international half-century at the age of 16 years and 146 days on 26 January 2019
• 4th youngest cricketer to captain in ODI
• only cricketer to have the feat of more than 1000 ODI runs for Nepal

Journey from debut to Captain & savior of Nepali Cricket

In July 2018, Rohit was named in Nepal’s squad for their One Day International (ODI) series against the Netherlands. He made his Twenty20 debut for Nepal in the 2018 MCC Tri-Nation Series against the Marylebone Cricket Club on 29 July 2018.

• June 2019, he was named in Nepal’s squad for the Regional Finals of the 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier tournament.
• September 2020, he was one of eighteen cricketers to be awarded with a central contract by the Cricket Association of Nepal but he struggled with his form in the 2020 season. In the following year, he with his mate went to an Indian cricket academy and trained hard and got back on side and has been omnipresent in today’s side. 
• 25 March 2022, in the first match of a two-match series against Papua New Guinea, Paudel scored his first century in an ODI match with 126 runs. 
• After the ex captain Sandeep’s controversy, he got the chance to captain (4th youngest ODI captain of all time) his side where he further proved himself with his tactical brilliance and situational acclimatization. 
• Consecutive wins against formidable oppositions like Scotland and Namibia who have just returned from T20 World Cup in Australia has further strengthened his captaining abilities.

Rohit: The messiah of Nepalese Cricket

Rohit has more than earned his spot and respect from the fans is budding up to see him captain the side for many more victories. He has been excellent recently and he has to be given a lot of credit of how well Nepal is performing these days. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, he has been a consistent run getter, a reliable one and his captaincy has led Nepal to better results and it’s not a fluke. I think it’s fair to say that he is a scintillating cricketing star right now and if he can keep this pace, you wonder where it would all end for him and for cricket crazy nation like Nepal under his command.