SUBAS HUMAGAIN, KATHMANDU
The Cricket Association of Nepal appointed Monty Desai as head coach of Nepal National Cricket Team 2 years ago. Monty, who took the over the reign when Nepal was on the verge of losing its ODI status changed the fate with magical run of results. His impact in a short time not only saved Nepal’s ODI recognition, but also took them to World Cup Qualifiers finishing third.
Nepal’s batting has improved drastically in the two years since Monty’s appointment. After performing well against the Test nations West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers, Nepal qualified for the Asia Cup and also competed with India and Pakistan. Nepal created another history by qualifying for the T20 World Cup for the second time. However, Nepal lost to South Africa and Bangladesh in very low-scoring matches in the World Cup, which deprived the team from historic results.
Amidst the ongoing debate over whether or not to renew Coach Desai’s contract, CAN has decided to hold a special ‘batting clinic’ program with Desai for 20 young batters on Wednesday. The young batters who are not in the senior team can expect their time with Desai to be very fruitful. Desai, who has previously been a batting consultant for the West Indies senior team, has also worked for the Canadian and UAE national teams. He was also associated with the Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Lions of the IPL.

Overall, Nepal’s improvement in batting after Desai’s arrival can be seen:
Improvement in ODI results
Nepal won 20 of the 36 matches played after the arrival of Monty Desai. While losing the other 15 matches and 1 being abandoned. Before Desai, Nepal had won only 15 of the 37 matches played.
Nepal won 5 consecutive matches after Desai’s arrival. At that time, the team went on to win 11 of the last 12 matches in League-2, reaching the top 3. From the brink of losing ODI status to getting the opportunity to play the World Cup qualifiers directly, it was nothing sort of miracle.
Under Desai, Nepal remained undefeated against Scotland, the winners of the last edition of League 2. Nepal won both its home matches and defeated Scotland in Dallas, USA this year. The other match there was abandoned due to rain.
Out of the 15 matches Nepal lost, 5 were against Test-recognized countries India, Pakistan, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe. Despite losing against them it has crossed the 230-run mark in every matches except Pakistan.
Nepal, which lost both its home matches against the US in new League 2 cycle, lost both its matches against Namibia this time. However they defeated the Netherlands in one match and lost the second one. Overall, Nepal has faced questions after its poor results in the first two series of the new season of League-2. However, both times Nepal has made a comeback with T20 cricket as the centerpiece, which seems to have affected the results.

Transformation in ODI team batting
After Desai took the leadership of Nepal, Nepal’s team batting has undergone a transformation. Before Desai’s arrival, Nepal’s average per wicket was 21.82 runs. After his arrival, it has increased to 27.65 runs per wicket. This shows that the average score of Nepali batters has increased by almost 26 percent.
Similarly, Nepal’s improvement can also be seen in the run rate. Before Desai’s arrival, Nepal used to score 4.27 runs per over, but after Desai’s arrival, the economy has reached 4.97, or almost 5 runs per over.
It was only after Desai’s arrival that the team was able to cross the 300-run mark for the first time. The 310 runs scored by Nepal against Oman is the highest total scored by Nepal in ODI cricket so far.
The team score has also had a positive impact after Monty’s arrival. Nepal had only been able to cross the 250-run mark 4 times before. But after his arrival, Nepal crossed the 250-run mark 10 times.
Before Desai, Nepal had not been able to cross the 200-run mark in 26 matches. Nepal had lost 20 of those matches. But after Desai came, Nepal failed to score 200 runs in only14 matches, out of which Nepal lost 8. After Desai came, Nepal failed to score 200 runs at home only 3 times. All three matches were in the last League-2 series.

Improvement in T20Is too
Since Desai’s arrival, Nepal has scored an average of 8.32 runs per over in 38 T20I matches. Before that, Nepal was scoring 7.52 runs per over. Similarly, the batting average has also increased from 21.17 runs per wicket to 23.71.
Nepal has won 21 of the 38 T20Is played after Desai came. Before that, Nepal had won 31 of the 53 matches. Nepal is playing the World Cup for the second time after Desai’s arrival and has also presented very competitive matches against teams like South Africa and Bangladesh. The 1-run defeat to South Africa was probably a very important link in introducing Nepali cricket to world cricket.
Development in partnerships
Nepal has improved all records of batting partnerships after the arrival of Monty Desai. Nepal has managed to improve all partnerships except 2 wickets for the first to tenth wickets in the last 2 years.
Nepal has scored 8 century partnerships in ODIs after the arrival of Desai. Of which, 3 times the partnership was more than 150. This includes the 171 runs that Kushal Bhurtel and Asif Sheikh made for the first wicket against Zimbabwe at their own home ground. Overall, the top 5 partnerships made by Nepal have been made after Desai’s arrival.
Desai had solved the problem of Nepal’s openers, which had become a big headache. The pair of Kushal Bhurtel and Asif Sheikh had built a century partnership 3 times.

Nepal also broke two records for the biggest partnership in T20I cricket after the arrival of Desai. The 171-run partnership for the third wicket between Kushal Bhurtel and Dipendra Singh Airee against the Philippines in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers was broken by Rohit Poudel and Kusal Malla against Mongolia in the 2023 Asian Games by putting on a 193-run partnership.
Nepal’s losses
In ODIs, Nepal has lost 4 out of 15 matches to Test teams. All these matches were played away from home and Nepal managed to cross the 230 mark in 3 matches. Nepal’s weakest performance was being dismissed for 104 runs against Pakistan in Multan during the Asia Cup. Nepali batsmen could not hold their own while batting under floodlights in day-night matches.
Another bad match that Nepal lost was in the Americas series after the World Cup against the United States in League-2. Where Nepal, batting first, could not stop the United States by scoring 286 runs. Although Nepal used 9 bowlers in that match, except for Kushal Bhurtel and Lalit Rajbanshi, all the other bowlers struggled. American opener Shayan Jahangir scored a century to give the home team victory. At one point, the team, which was in a position of 197-6 in 36 overs, struggled to take the seventh wicket and lost by 3 wickets in the last over.
Before that, Nepal had also lost in the series against Oman in Canada despite being close to winning. When presented with a target of 221 runs, Nepal lost by 1 wicket after failing to take the last wicket of Oman, which was in a position of 211-9 at one point. With 8 runs needed to win in the last over, Shakeel Ahmed and Kaleemullah hit a boundary each for Oman to secure the win.
Similarly, in the World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe, Nepal had set a target of 269 runs for Ireland. Ireland reached 134-5 in 26 overs but managed to win by 2 wickets in the last over.
In the last series at home, when they set a target of 169 runs for Namibia, Nepal struggled to take wickets even after reaching 118-6. The defeat brought a happy end to Namibia’s tour of Nepal. Another reason was that Nepal could not play the full 50 overs in that match. Nepal was all out with 13 overs remaining due to continuous poor shots by the players on home soil. Nepal was in crisis when 3 top-order batsmen got out for ducks.