Janakpur Bolts made Aasif Sheikh their marquee player, made someone else captain, won a title with him, finished last with him, and then became the first franchise ever to release its marquee. Seven of the eight franchises chased him at the Season 3 auction, the top bid was matched, and a lucky draw sent him to defending champions Lumbini Lions for NPR 20 lakh — the most expensive buy of the auction. His first game for the champions brought 32 off 25 in a 71-run opening stand, with his elder brother Aarif out for 0 on the other side and the wicketkeeping gloves going to someone else. Match 14 on 5 November is his first game against Janakpur.
The Auction: Seven Bids and a Lucky Draw
Janakpur released Aasif before the Season 3 retention deadline, and the release itself was historic: no franchise had released its marquee player before. Leg-spinner Lalit Rajbanshi became Janakpur’s new marquee, and Anil Shah was expected to take the gloves. Released into the auction pool on 6 July 2026 in Kathmandu, Aasif drew the day’s fiercest bidding (seven franchises went for him, only Chitwan Rhinos staying silent), and with the top bid matched, a lucky draw decided the signing in Lumbini’s favour at NPR 20 lakh.
Lumbini were the auction’s biggest spenders, using NPR 44 lakh of a 49.25 lakh purse across six signings: Aasif at 20 lakh, Kishor Mahato at 10 lakh, Durgesh Gupta and Aakash Tripathi at 5 lakh each, and Ajay Chauhan and Araniko Yadav at 2 lakh each. Four other Category A players went for 15 lakh each: Arjun Gharti to Pokhara, Bibek Kumar Yadav to Chitwan, Rupesh Kumar Singh to Biratnagar, and Trit Raj Das to Janakpur. Two auction details are deliberately left out of this feature: the sold-player count conflicts across reports, and one report’s claim about a base price is arithmetically wrong, so neither figure is printed. Another report’s line about Kathmandu releasing Aasif is wrong too — Janakpur released him.
One Game: 32 in a 71-Run Opening Stand
Match 1 against Sudurpaschim Royals on 26 October gave Lumbini the start their title defence needed. Chasing 88, Aasif made 32 off 25 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes at a strike rate of 128.00, caught by Dipendra Singh Airee off Anil Kharel, the second wicket to fall at 82 in the 9th over. D’Arcy Short made 40 off 18 in a 71-run opening stand inside 6.2 overs, with Lumbini 70 without loss after the six-over powerplay. Short fell first, also to Kharel, caught by Sherfane Rutherford. One over defined the chase: Aasif took Scott Kuggeleijn for two sixes and a four, taking Lumbini past 50 inside five overs, and Kuggeleijn finished with 2 overs for 30 without a wicket.
One label from the brief does not hold for this game. Aasif is Lumbini’s wicketkeeper-batter signing, and the squad list shows him as WK, but Niroshan Dickwella kept wicket in the opener, with Dilip Nath (wk) on the bench without batting. Aasif played as a specialist opener and fielder, and his one fielding moment was a catch as a fielder: Sherfane Rutherford for 1 off 4, caught by Aasif off Sher Malla. Player of the Match was Malla for 3/11, not Aasif. On the other side, elder brother Aarif Sheikh (an all-rounder, and the brother Aasif once aimed to build long partnerships with for Nepal) made 0 off 6 for Sudurpaschim, caught by van Schalkwyk off Mahato. Aasif is not to be confused with Imran Sheikh, who plays for Biratnagar and made 39 off 31 in Match 2.
Two Seasons in Janakpur: A Title, Then Last Place
Season 1 in 2024 was the title. Aasif was Janakpur’s marquee player, but Anil Shah was captain — Janakpur were the first franchise to appoint a captain other than their marquee player. Janakpur finished second in the league, lost Qualifier 1 to Sudurpaschim, beat Karnali in Qualifier 2, and beat Sudurpaschim in the final. In that final on 21 December 2024, chasing 185, Aasif made 33 off 19 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes in a 73-run opening stand with Lahiru Milantha, who made 87 off 49 and was Player of the Match.
Season 2 in 2025 was last place with one win. In the opener on 17 November 2025 against Kathmandu, Aasif made 54 off 41 balls with 6 fours and 1 six, reaching fifty off 37 balls, as Janakpur posted 130/6 and lost by 5 wickets with two overs to spare. That 54 remains his NPL high and his only NPL fifty. One pre-Season 3 source gives his combined NPL aggregate as 16 matches, 263 runs, highest 54, average 16.44, strike rate 110.97, with 30 fours and 7 sixes; a series row for 2025 alone gives 105 runs off 93 balls at 112.90, consistent with the 54 being his Season 2 high. No published Season 1 split exists, so this feature does not derive one. From marquee to released in two seasons, with a title and a last-place finish in between — that is the record Lumbini paid 20 lakh for.
The Keeper-Batter Behind the Price Tag
Aasif Sheikh, born 22 June 2001 in Birgunj, is a right-handed wicketkeeper-batter, 25 in Season 3, wearing shirt number 9 for Nepal. T20 international debut came on 17 April 2021 against Netherlands at Kirtipur, with an unbeaten half-century and a record 116-run first-wicket partnership with Kushal Bhurtel in a nine-wicket win; he made 154 runs in that series at 38.50 and a strike rate of 138.73. ODI debut followed on 7 September 2021 against Papua New Guinea at Al Amerat, and within days he made 90 against Oman.
ODI centuries number exactly two, 43 completed innings apart. First came 110 off 110 against Papua New Guinea in March 2023. Second came 102 off 106 against UAE in the ACC Men’s Premier Cup final in September 2026, with 8 fours and 4 sixes at 96.22, named Player of the Match as Nepal posted 313/9 and beat UAE’s 269 by 44 runs, lifting the trophy and qualifying for the 2027 Asia Cup, with a 97-run opening stand alongside Arjun Kumal’s 43 off 63. Form behind the price tag is current: after 155 runs at 22.14 in 2025, he made 525 runs at 32.81 in 2026, including 94 against Oman and the title-winning 102. Aggregates conflict by snapshot date, so this feature prints only the dated October 2026 snapshot: 2,202 ODI runs from 79 innings, second behind Paudel all-time, with 17 fifties. No undated keeping aggregate is printed.
One award separates him from every other Nepali player. Aasif is the first Nepali recipient of the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award, for 14 February 2022 against Ireland in a Quadrangular series in Oman. Ireland were 113/8 after 18 overs; off the third ball of the 19th over, Mark Adair’s heave hit his leg and dropped leg-side, bowler Kamal Singh Airee collided with non-striker Andy McBrine, who tripped and fell halfway up the pitch, and Airee threw to Aasif with McBrine well short of his crease. Aasif declined to whip the bails off. Ireland posted 127 and Nepal fell 17 short, but Aasif later said it was a spontaneous decision not to take the wicket because it would have been unfair to the batter. As a teenager from Birgunj, he had already announced himself with an unbeaten 111 off 64 balls for Panchakanya Tej in the 2016 Everest Premier League final, and he captained Nepal at under-19 level — one headline calling him senior Nepal skipper is wrong, and senior captaincy is not claimed here. In March 2023 he batted through an innings for an unbeaten 86 off 130 against Papua New Guinea in Dubai, chasing 180 with a 77-run unbroken seventh-wicket stand alongside Sandeep Lamichhane’s 35 not out off 50, winning by 3 wickets with two overs spare.
Lumbini have played only Match 1 so far. 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. Match 14 is the reunion game, and the keeper question is still open: Dickwella kept in the opener, and whether Aasif takes the gloves later in the season is unanswered. His own recent words, after the ACC final hundred, carry the approach that made him the auction’s most expensive buy: if he got a start, he had to go on.
FAQs
What did Aasif Sheikh do in the Season 3 opener?
He made 32 off 25 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes in a 71-run opening stand with D’Arcy Short, falling at 82 in the 9th over, caught by Airee off Kharel. He did not keep wicket in that game (Dickwella did), and his catch of Rutherford came as a fielder.
Why did Janakpur release him, and how did Lumbini sign him?
Janakpur released him before the Season 3 retention deadline, the first franchise ever to release its marquee player. At the 6 July 2026 auction, seven of the eight franchises bid, the top bid was matched, and a lucky draw sent him to Lumbini for NPR 20 lakh, the most expensive buy of the auction.
What is the Spirit of Cricket award story?
On 14 February 2022 against Ireland in Oman, with non-striker Andy McBrine well short of his crease after a collision, Aasif declined to whip the bails off. He later said it was a spontaneous decision because taking the wicket would have been unfair to the batter, and he became the first Nepali recipient of the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award.
When does Aasif face Janakpur, and will he keep wicket?
Match 14 on Wednesday 5 November (12:30 PM) is his first game against his old team. Whether he takes the gloves later in the season is unanswered — Dickwella kept wicket in the opener.
