Nepal Cricket Team: Profile, ODI Status, Rankings & Records

Yes. The Nepal men's national cricket team holds full One Day International (ODI) status. The International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded Nepal ODI status on 15 March 2018 (BS 2074), after the team secured its place through the 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe. Nepal played its first-ever ODI on 1 August 2018 against the Netherlands at the VRA Cricket Ground in Amstelveen, losing by 55 runs. This made Nepal one of a small group of ICC Associate Members to hold ODI status rather than full membership.

Nepal is an ICC Associate Member, not a Full Member. It was admitted as an Associate Member on 2 February 1996 (BS 2052). Full Members are the twelve Test-playing nations; Associate Members such as Nepal, Scotland, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates can earn time-limited ODI and permanent Twenty20 International (T20I) status without playing Test cricket. Nepal earlier received T20I status recognition, and since 2019 all matches between ICC members in the shortest format carry official T20I status.

Holding ODI status matters because it lets Nepal play ranked 50-over internationals, compete in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League / League 2 pathway, and record official statistics. The team is governed by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), the country's sole recognised cricket body, and plays its home internationals at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

As of mid-2026, Nepal are ranked around 17th in the ICC Men's ODI Team Rankings and around 15th in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings. Because rankings are recalculated after every series, the exact position shifts across each World Cup qualifier and bilateral series, but Nepal has consistently sat among the strongest Associate nations rather than the Full Members at the top of the tables.

Nepal's highest rankings to date came in May 2019, when the team briefly reached 14th in ODIs and 11th in T20Is on the back of strong World Cup League 2 and qualifier results. The T20I ranking in particular has been buoyed by Nepal's aggressive batting and by results against fellow Associates and, more recently, against a Full Member.

To check the live figure, readers should consult the official ICC team rankings page or ESPNcricinfo, since ratings points change with every completed international. Rankings in this article reflect the position in the first half of 2026 and are indicative rather than a fixed, permanent number.

Nepal's ODI captain is Rohit Paudel, a top-order batter from Bhaktapur who took over the captaincy in 2023 and is also the team's all-time leading run-scorer. The T20I side has in recent seasons been led by all-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee, with captaincy roles occasionally rotating around the senior core. Other prominent names include leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, the team's record wicket-taker, and hard-hitting batter Kushal Malla.

The head coach is Stuart Law, a former Australia international appointed by CAN in early 2025 on a two-year contract, succeeding Monty Desai. Law played 55 international matches for Australia in the 1990s and has extensive coaching experience with USA, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the West Indies and Afghanistan, bringing high-level pedigree to Nepal's setup.

The Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), established in 1946 (BS 2003) and based in Kirtipur, is the national governing body responsible for the men's and women's teams, domestic competitions such as the Nepal Premier League, and the country's ICC affiliation. CAN also administers the age-group and 'A' teams that feed the senior side.

In ODIs, Nepal's highest team total is 321 runs, made against Scotland at Forthill in Dundee on 8 June 2025. The team's lowest completed ODI total is 103, against the United Arab Emirates in Dubai on 21 March 2022. Nepal's biggest ODI win by runs is a 177-run victory over the UAE at Kirtipur on 12 March 2023, while its biggest wins by wickets are nine-wicket margins recorded against Papua New Guinea, Canada and the Netherlands.

Rohit Paudel is Nepal's leading ODI run-scorer with more than 2,100 runs, and he also holds the individual best score of 126, made against Papua New Guinea at Kirtipur in March 2022. The leading wicket-taker is leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, who has taken over 150 ODI wickets; his best figures of 6 for 11 against Papua New Guinea at Al Amerat, Oman, in September 2021 rank among the finest bowling returns by any Nepali cricketer.

These figures are ratified ODI records maintained by the ICC and ESPNcricinfo. Because the team plays regularly in the World Cup League 2 pathway, several of these marks are relatively recent and can be broken during any series, so readers seeking the very latest numbers should cross-check the ESPNcricinfo Nepal records page.

Nepal owns some of the most eye-catching records in Twenty20 International history, set during the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. Against Mongolia on 27 September 2023, Nepal posted 314 for 3, at the time the highest total in men's T20I history and the first team to pass 300 in the format. Nepal then bowled Mongolia out cheaply to win by 273 runs, a record margin.

In the same innings, Kushal Malla reached a century off just 34 balls, then the fastest hundred in men's T20I history, while Dipendra Singh Airee smashed a fifty off only nine balls, breaking Yuvraj Singh's long-standing record for the quickest T20I half-century. These achievements put Nepal into the record books and generated worldwide attention for the country's cricket.

While the batting records were set against a developing opponent, they remain officially recognised T20I milestones and are frequently cited as evidence of the explosive, fearless style that has become a hallmark of Nepal's white-ball cricket.

Nepal's most significant recent achievement came in September 2025, when the side beat the West Indies in a T20I in Sharjah for its first-ever victory over a Full Member in any format, then went on to win the three-match bilateral series 2-1. The 90-run margin in the second match and the West Indies' low total in the opener set records for the biggest and heaviest results by a Full Member against an Associate in T20Is.

The team's colours have earned it the nicknames 'The Rhinos' and 'Men in Red and Blue', while its habit of thrilling, tight finishes has led some fans to call the side the 'Cardiac Kids'. Cricket enjoys enormous grassroots popularity in Nepal, and huge home crowds at Kirtipur have made the ground one of the most atmospheric venues on the Associate circuit.

Beyond results, Nepal's progress reflects a broader rise in the country's cricketing infrastructure: a professional franchise league (the Nepal Premier League), a stronger domestic pipeline through CAN, and international coaching. The team's ongoing goals are to retain ODI status, qualify for global events such as the T20 World Cup and the ODI World Cup pathway, and eventually push toward the upper reaches of the Associate ranks.