Rohit Paudel lost the Nepal captaincy twice in 2026 — T20 internationals in April, one-day internationals in August. He opens NPL Season 3 holding the one crown nobody took from him: defending champions Lumbini Lions, against the same team he beat in last season’s final, in the same fixture, with the same story. Sudurpaschim were bowled out for 87 in the opener, two runs more than their 85 in the final, and Paudel finished the chase himself with a boundary for 5 not out. Six games remain, and the title defence is the only captaincy left to defend.
One Game: The Same Story, the Same Opponent
Match 1 against Sudurpaschim Royals on 26 October was a rematch of the Season 2 final, and it played like one. Paudel won the toss and chose to field. Sudurpaschim were bowled out for 87 in 17.2 overs, losing their last 5 wickets for 31 runs, and Lumbini chased it in 9.5 overs with 61 balls left. Paudel finished 5 not out off 3 balls with one four, hitting the winning boundary off Dipendra Singh Airee at 9.5. With the ball he took 1/10 in 2.2 overs, bowling Abhinash Bohara for 3 to end the innings, and he caught Ishan Pandey for 7 off Tilak Bhandari.
Player of the Match was Sher Malla for 3/11 in four overs, not Paudel, and the bowling told the story of the opener: Kishor Mahato 4/22, Malla 3/11, van Schalkwyk and Bhandari one each. D’Arcy Short made 40 off 18 and Aasif Sheikh 32 off 25 in a 71-run opening stand inside 6.2 overs, with Niroshan Dickwella on 7 and Shamim Hossain 1 not out at the finish. One report says Lumbini reached 91; the scorecard reads 88/3. Another says Mahato took four for 28. The scorecard reads 4/22. Paudel’s own M1 report only paraphrases him: he praised the bowling and fielding, particularly Mahato’s four-wicket haul and Malla’s disciplined spell, and admitted he had not expected his bowlers to restrict Sudurpaschim to another total below 90. No current-season direct quote from Paudel has been published.
Last to First: The Six-Win Run
Season 1 was the bottom of the table. Lumbini finished eighth and last with one win, six losses, two points and a net run rate of −0.498, the first team eliminated after being bowled out for 85 chasing 104 against Kathmandu on 11 December 2024. Paudel captained throughout, scoring 279 runs in seven innings with two half-centuries. His finest game of that season was the only win: 10 December 2024 against Chitwan, 80 off 57 with the bat and 4/17 with the ball, Lumbini 167/6 beating Chitwan 134/8 by 33 runs. One preview calls the Season 1 finish seventh. The points table reads eighth and last.
Season 2 reversed everything. Lumbini won their opener against Chitwan, then lost three straight (to Karnali, Kathmandu and Sudurpaschim) to sit 1–3. Then came the run: three straight league wins, including a four-wicket win over Janakpur on 5 December 2025 that sealed the playoff spot (Paudel 34 plus 2 wickets, a 60-run stand with Short’s 30, chase completed in 19.1 overs), then Eliminator victory over Kathmandu by four wickets, then a 40-run Qualifier 2 win over Biratnagar on 11 December (Lumbini 134/8 with Short 45 off 41 and Paudel 34 in a 69-run second-wicket stand, Biratnagar 94 in 17.5 overs, Bhandari 3 wickets, Trumpelmann, Smuts and Gautam 2 each), then the final. Six consecutive victories including the playoffs.
Paudel’s Season 2 aggregate was 276 runs (second overall behind Pokhara’s Adam Rossington on 323, and the highest Nepali run-scorer ahead of Binod Bhandari on 264) plus 10 wickets. He was named Player of the Tournament, winning an electric car worth Rs 6 million, and Best Batter, winning a Pulsar bike. By his own later words, he did not score even a single half-century in that season despite the 276 runs, and he was happy with that because the team won. Across the first two seasons, published figures credit him with 555 runs from 17 innings, the leading NPL run-scorer of that period. The opener’s 5 not out takes the arithmetic to 560 from 18 innings.
The Hat-Trick Final
Season 2’s final, on 13 December 2025 at TU Ground, was decided in one over. Sudurpaschim won the toss and chose to bat, and were bowled out for 85 in 19.1 overs — the lowest total ever by a team batting first in NPL history. Lumbini chased it in 9 overs, winning by 6 wickets. Paudel’s hat-trick came off the last three balls of the 11th over: Dipendra Singh Airee for 13 off 20, caught by Trumpelmann off Paudel’s bowling, then Dipak Bohara for 0, then Puneet Mehra for 0 — Royals from 44/3 to 44/6. His figures were 3/12 in four overs. It was his first NPL hat-trick, the second hat-trick of the 2025 season after Shahab Alam’s 6/25 for Kathmandu against Pokhara on 4 December, and the first ever in an NPL final. One match report calls it his second of the season. That is wrong, and the count matters because only two NPL hat-tricks exist, both in that season, nine days apart.
Paudel’s batting in the final was 16 off 12 balls with one six and two fours, caught by Airee off Abinash Bohara with Lumbini needing two runs. Dinesh Adhikari top-scored with 42 off 13 balls with five sixes and one four (including 27 off Airee’s first over), not Paudel, despite one ambiguous snippet. Short made 14 off 13, Dickwella finished 11 not out, and Dilip Nath hit the winning run. Player of the Match was Ruben Trumpelmann for 3/3 in 2.1 overs, not Paudel. Trumpelmann was also Player of the Series with 15 wickets in 10 matches. Paudel’s own post-final words carried the season: he never even dreamed of taking a hat-trick, the team had expected a target around 140 to 150, and the combined effort of Trumpelmann, Sher Malla and the other bowlers brought an unexpected result. On the car, he said he never thought about it, his mind was only on the trophy, and the car followed on its own.
The Captaincy He Lost, the Crown He Keeps
Rohit Kumar Paudel, born 2 September 2002 in Nawalparasi, is a right-handed batter and right-arm off-break bowler, 24 in Season 3. Appointed Nepal captain in November 2022 at 20 years and 73 days (the second-youngest one-day captain) after Sandeep Lamichhane was suspended amid a legal case, he led Nepal at the 2023 Asia Cup and the 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups. As national captain he led 59 T20 internationals and 63 one-day internationals, winning 33 and 31, making him Nepal’s longest-serving captain. T20 international captaincy ended in April 2026 with the reins going to Dipendra Singh Airee. One-day captaincy was stripped in August 2026 and given to Sandeep Lamichhane. Old pieces calling him national captain are pre-April and pre-August 2026. In Season 3 he captains Lumbini only.
ODI debut came on 3 August 2018 against Netherlands at Amstelveen, aged 15 years and 335 days, the fourth-youngest one-day debutant, scoring 6 off 15 batting at No. 6. Twenty20 debut came on 29 July 2018 against MCC, not a T20 international. T20 international debut followed on 31 January 2019 against UAE in Dubai. Five days before that debut, on 26 January 2019, he became the youngest male international fifty scorer at 16 years and 146 days, with 55 off 58 against UAE in Dubai as Nepal won by 145 runs — breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s 29-year record, before teammate Kushal Malla broke it in February 2020. Under-19 debut against India in the 2016 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup in Colombo saw him rescue Nepal from 86/6 with 68 not out, including 24 runs in five balls in one over. Captaincy peak came with 11 wins in 12 one-day internationals to secure Nepal’s berth at the 2023 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe. Aggregates conflict by date, so this feature prints only the dated August 2026 snapshot: 88 one-day matches, 2,313 runs, two centuries, twelve fifties — most one-day caps and most one-day runs for Nepal, and the first Nepali to 2,000 one-day runs.
Lumbini’s title defence rests on a retained core and a retained coach. Tinu Yohannan, the former India fast bowler who guided the side to the championship in Season 2, stays as head coach. Season 2 mentor Robin Singh is a Season 2-only name and is not claimed for Season 3. Fortuna Health Care owns the franchise. Seven Nepali players were retained (Paudel, Sher Malla, Sandeep Jora, Tilak Bhandari, Abhishek Gautam, Dinesh Adhikari and Dilip Nath), and the auction added Aasif Sheikh for Rs 20 lakh, the most expensive Season 3 buy overall, plus Kishor Mahato for Rs 10 lakh, Durgesh Gupta and Aakash Tripathi for Rs 5 lakh each, and Araniko Yadav and Ajay Chauhan for Rs 2 lakh each. Overseas names are Short, Trumpelmann, Dickwella, van Schalkwyk and Shamim Hossain. Remaining fixtures are Match 7 against Chitwan on Saturday 31 October (12:30 PM), Match 13 against Pokhara on Monday 3 November, Match 14 against Janakpur on Wednesday 5 November (12:30 PM), Match 18 against Kathmandu on Saturday 7 November (5:00 PM), Match 23 against Karnali on Thursday 12 November (5:00 PM), and Match 26 against Biratnagar on Saturday 14 November (5:00 PM). Match 7 sits under the Kathmandu rain threat, with no postponement announced as of 30 October evening.
FAQs
What did Rohit Paudel do in the Season 3 opener?
He won the toss and chose to field, finished 5 not out off 3 balls with the winning boundary off Airee at 9.5, took 1/10 in 2.2 overs including the last wicket (Bohara for 3), and caught Ishan Pandey for 7. Player of the Match was Sher Malla for 3/11.
What was Paudel’s Season 2 final hat-trick?
In the 11th over of the final on 13 December 2025, off its last three balls, he dismissed Airee (13), Dipak Bohara (0) and Puneet Mehra (0), taking Royals from 44/3 to 44/6 with figures of 3/12. It was his first NPL hat-trick, the second of the 2025 season, and the first ever in an NPL final.
Is Rohit Paudel still Nepal captain?
No. T20 international captaincy ended in April 2026 (to Dipendra Singh Airee) and one-day captaincy was stripped in August 2026 (to Sandeep Lamichhane). In Season 3 he captains Lumbini Lions only.
What are Paudel’s career milestones?
Youngest male international fifty scorer at 16 years and 146 days (55 off 58 against UAE, 26 January 2019). One-day debut came aged 15 years and 335 days, the fourth youngest. By the dated August 2026 snapshot, 88 one-day matches for 2,313 runs, the most caps and most runs for Nepal.
