The men’s national cricket team of Nepal concluded the ICC Men’s World Cup League 2 tri-series on a disastrous note in the Netherlands recently.

Contrary to high expectations, they badly stumbled, losing all four matches to the Netherlands and Namibia. In other words, they suffered an unexpected disappointing whitewash.

The reversal has proved costly as the team’s One Day International (ODI) rankings took a hit, dropping to 18th from 17th.The bigger concern is, it has jeopardized their ODI status.

They have 24 points, from 32 matches, winning 11 and losing 29. They are sixth in the table standings tied with Canada on points.

However, a better run rate puts them ahead of Canada, which still has four matches remaining to play.

Skipper Rohit Paudel led a squad packed with highly experienced and a few promising young players.

Nepal had entered the Netherlands triangular series, following superb performances in the two World Cup league 2 series held at home and the 2026 Asian Games qualifier in Singapore.

From a position of non-contender, they jumped into contender status. It was a very important and crucial bounce back, renewing their chances of making it to the final round.

They had the much-needed momentum on their side. The key was to maintain their winning performance in order to further solidify their position in the table standings.

It was indispensable for them to preserve and sustain a high degree of consistent performance, collectively and individually in every department of the game throughout the series.

However, as things panned out, they made a complete hash of the series, falling flat and failing to earn a single point. As a result, another great chance goes begging for them.

Consequently, they are now under enormous pressure to make another comeback.

Despite the setback, they still can make it to the championship if they turn the tide in their favor in the Global Qualifier play-offs.

The play-offs will feature a total of eight teams, 4 each from CWC League 2 and CWC Challenge League that finish in the bottom four in table standings.

It is another crucial opportunity for them to redeem themselves by coming out trumps and qualifying to the championship round.

Obviously, it will not be easy as they have a big challenge on hand. They have to be at their very best, perform consistently and put in a solid concerted effort and individual brilliance on all fronts of the game.

Moving forward the batting has to improve markedly to put the team on the path to success.

The batters must do everything needed to turn things around when it comes to improving their batting performance.

Foremost they have to assess and evaluate their performances in the series. They must be committed to working on their shortcomings and making batting corrections accordingly.

They have to fully apply themselves, keeping their focus, discipline, confidence, positivity and winning mindset intact.

In order for Team Nepal to complete an outstanding comeback there is virtually no room for inept performance and mediocrity at any point of the playoff matches. Otherwise, their effort will go up in smoke.

Going back to the Netherlands series, batting inconsistency and failure largely contributed to Team Nepal’s debacle.

The batting was fragile, brittle and highly disappointing. Batting first the top order batters struggled mightily failing to post competitive total.

Likewise, in the run chase, they faltered, falling well short of reaching the winning target.

The batters struggled to find their form, rhythm and timing. They were mentally and technically error prone, throwing away wickets cheaply time and time again.

The batting was distinctly subpar with the team scoring 157,157 and 168 runs in the three 50 over matches. Only in one game they made 200 plus runs.

The closest Nepal came to reaching the winning target was against Namibia before coming short by a few runs.

No batter reached the half century mark. Aasif Sheikh’s knock of 45 was the highest individual score. With a modest total of 113 runs from four matches, he was the team’s top run getter, followed by skipper Paudel’s meager 101 runs. They were the only two batters totaling 100 plus runs.

Keeping in mind opener Kushal Bhurtel who had scored back-to-back centuries and all -rounder Dipendra Singh Airee’s outstanding consistent performance, they were expected to play a big part in the team’s success.

The expectations did not materialize as both players struggled to find their form and had a very poor series. Bhurtel never got going with the bat, while Airee put up a very average performance.

Having to defend paltry totals due to batting failure for the most part of the series, the bowlers were under constant pressure.

Nonetheless, there is plenty of room for bowlers to improve their performance. There is a need for them to work on their line, length, accuracy and consistency. They have to take their game to the next level to restrict opposition batters freely scoring runs and from posting a challenging total.

Star spinner Sandeep Lamichhane ‘s lackluster performance came as a big surprise and to some extent impacted the team’s final outcome. He went wicketless and was dropped from one match.

In contrast, experienced pacer Karan KC. hogged the limelight for his incredible performance.

He rounded off the series with 9 wickets to become the team’s leading wicket taker. Besides, as a tailender he was able to score important runs as well.

He became the second bowler and first pacer to scalp 100 wickets in ODI for the team. Lamichanne was the first bowler to reach the milestone.

Denying opportunity to emerging young debutant batter Arjun Kumal who had made a name for himself in domestic cricket for his superlative batting performance raised many eyebrows and questioned the credibility of team selectors despite constant failures of regular batters.

Experienced wicket keeper Binod Bhandari with a relatively good batting average became a spectator as he was overlooked for all four matches as well.

This kind of management mistake is questionable and does great harm to the team. Cricket Association of Nepal must look into it and ensure that it is not repeated in the future.