Karan KC is Kathmandu Gorkhas’ all-time leading wicket-taker and captain in all three NPL seasons. Season 3 opened with a personal blank inside a team collapse: 8 off 18 with the bat and 0/18 with the ball, as Kathmandu were bowled out for 115 and lost by 8 wickets. David Warner, the signing meant to transform the side, still had not landed. Six games remain, starting against unbeaten table-toppers Karnali, and the old core is holding the fort until the star arrives — if he arrives in time.
One Game: 8 off 18, 0/18, 115 All Out
Match 5 against Janakpur Bolts on 29 October was Kathmandu’s first match of the tournament, and it went wrong from the middle overs on. Kathmandu won the toss and chose to bat (three sources agree on that, against any suggestion that Janakpur won it), and were bowled out for 115 in 19.3 overs. Janakpur chased it in 17.2 overs, winning by 8 wickets with 16 balls left. Player of the Match was Rahul Yadav for 4/31. Kathmandu sit seventh after that game, with 0 points and a net run rate of −0.942.
Karan batted at No. 7 and made 8 off 18 balls with no fours at a strike rate of 44.44, caught by Abhisekh Tiwari off Rahul Yadav. Kathmandu lost three wickets in the 17th over at 99: captain Karan for eight, Mohammad Adil Alam for a duck, and Jahandad Khan for five. With the ball, Karan bowled 2 overs for 18 runs without a wicket in the powerplay, at 9.00 an over. No catch, stumping or run-out is attributed to him in the full scorecard, so this feature invents no fielding moment. Kathmandu’s XI in scorecard order was Smit Patel, Sam Heazlett, Harishankar Shah, Rashid Khan, Bhim Sharki, Sumit Maharjan, Karan KC as captain, Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Adil Alam, Ripon Mondol and Shahab Alam. Warner, KS Bharat, Sahan Arachchige and William Bosisto were not in the XI. Janakpur’s bowling read Rahul 4/31, Saif Hassan 4-0-11-2, Moeen Ali 4-0-23-1, Harmeet Singh 3.3-0-18-1 and Lalit Rajbanshi 4-0-30-1, while the chase was Moeen 58 not out off 51 and Saif Hassan 40 not out off 39. Kathmandu’s only wicket-taking bowler was Ripon Mondol with 3-0-17-1, and the other Janakpur wicket was Mayan Yadav run out for 9. After the match, cricket director Sharad Vesawkar said Kathmandu had failed to build crucial partnerships and fallen 10–15 runs short of a competitive total, with confidence that the arrival of overseas players could strengthen the squad in upcoming matches.
Three Seasons, One Captain, 25 Wickets
Karan has captained Kathmandu in all three seasons, and the evidence runs through each one: a retention announcement calls him national team fast bowler and team captain from the inaugural season, a Season 2 rebrand piece calls him marquee player and captain, an Eliminator report has Kathmandu captain Karan KC winning the toss and opting to bat, and a league report has captain Karan KC scoring 34 runs in only 11 balls. He is the club’s all-time leading wicket-taker with 25 NPL wickets at 14.64 and an economy of 7.07: 12 wickets in Season 1 across 7 matches, and 13 wickets in Season 2, joint-most for the team alongside Shahab Alam. One source says 15 matches in total and another says 17. The arithmetic supports 15 from the season splits, but this feature prints the wickets and the split, not a contested matches total. Best NPL figures are also internally conflicted across one source’s own rows, so no single best figure is printed here.
Finishes need qualifiers. Season 1 ended fifth, missing the playoffs on net run rate. Season 2 ended third in the league stage with 10 points from five wins in seven games, but fourth overall after losing the Eliminator — so any bare “third” or bare “fourth” without the qualifier would be wrong. Season 1 highlight came in December 2024 against Lumbini: Kathmandu won the toss, batted first, made 103 all out in 19.2 overs, and Lumbini were bowled out for 85 in 19.3 overs chasing 104, a win by 18 runs. Season 2 highlight came on 25 November 2025 against Lumbini in the league match: Karan unbeaten on 34 off 11 balls, named Player of the Match, with 4 sixes and 1 four, dismantling Ruben Trumpelmann in the 19th over for 31 runs, as Kathmandu posted 157/8 after being put in by Paudel and won by 22 runs. One outlier report gives a 26-run margin. Three independent Eliminator previews repeat 22 runs, and the scorecard arithmetic agrees. Season 2 Eliminator on 10 December 2025, again against Lumbini, ended the run: Karan won the toss and opted to bat, Kathmandu were bowled out for 111 in 19.1 overs (not 112, which was the target), and Lumbini chased 112/6 in 17.4 overs, winning by 4 wickets.
The Hat-Trick and the Hundreds
Karan Khatri Chhetri, born 10 October 1991 in Baglung, is a right-handed batter and right-arm fast-medium bowler, 35 in Season 3 after turning 35 on 10 October 2026, wearing shirt number 33 for Nepal. Senior debut came in January 2015 against Uganda in the ICC World Cricket League Division Two in Namibia: 9 wickets in 6 matches at 15.88 and an economy of 3.31, including a five-wicket haul against Canada. T20 international debut came against Netherlands in 2015. Sources conflict on the day, so no day is printed here. ODI debut came on 1 August 2018 against Netherlands at Amstelveen, in Nepal’s first-ever ODI, with his first ODI wicket Scott Edwards lbw for 18 in a 55-run defeat.
On 31 March 2022 against Papua New Guinea at TU Ground, Kirtipur, in a Tri-Nation T20I Series match, Nepal posted 203/7 with Airee making 66 off 33, and Papua New Guinea were bowled out for 166 in 19.4 overs, a win by 37 runs. Karan took 5/21 in 3.4 overs, was named Player of the Match, and completed a hat-trick in the final over: Soper caught by Paudel, Atai bowled, Pokana caught by Airee. He became the first Nepali to take a hat-trick in a T20 international and the first Nepali to claim five wickets in the format. The previous Nepal T20I best was Basant Regmi’s 4/16 against Hong Kong at Belfast in 2015. In the same match he also reached his 50th T20I wicket, the second Nepali after Sandeep. One database claims zero hat-tricks for him. That claim is wrong against the scorecard and three reports. Milestones kept coming. First came 100 T20I wickets on 17 June 2025 against Scotland, dismissing George Munsey, second Nepali after Sandeep, who had 111 at that date. Then came 100 ODI wickets in July 2026 against Namibia at Utrecht, the first Nepal pacer and only the second Nepal bowler to reach it after Sandeep, entering the match two short and completing it by dismissing Louren Steenkamp for 59, caught by Kushal Bhurtel, with figures of 2/16 from 8 overs. Best ODI figures are 5/33 against Oman at Pearland in June 2022, named Player of the Match, Oman bowled out for 163 and Nepal chasing by seven wickets. One undated account describing a first five-wicket haul in a loss to Oman conflicts with that win account and may describe a different Oman match, so only the Pearland account is printed here. Two famous one-wicket wins carry his name with the bat: unbeaten 42 off 31 at No. 10 against Canada at Windhoek on 14 February 2018, securing the 2018 World Cup Qualifier berth and the ODI-status path, and unbeaten 65 against Scotland at Dundee in 2025. He was in Nepal’s squads for both the 2024 T20 World Cup, in Group D with the opener on 4 June 2024 against Netherlands in Texas, and the 2026 T20 World Cup, in Group C with all matches at Wankhede in Mumbai. Death-bowling reputation is sourced, not invented. One profile says he has often taken the new ball, operated in the middle overs and returned at the death, becoming one of Nepal’s most trusted wicket-taking options. One preview notes that in a key bowler’s absence, he usually shares death duties. Another preview has the pace attack spearheaded by Sompal Kami and Karan KC, both bringing experience, movement with the new ball and the ability to execute at the death. International aggregates conflict by snapshot date, so this feature prints only the dated 3 July 2025 snapshot: 61 ODI matches for 565 runs at 16.61 with a top score of 65 not out, 86 ODI wickets at 26.33 with a best of 5/33 and three five-fors, and 81 T20 internationals for 468 runs at 15.09 with a top score of 45, 103 T20 international wickets at 20.14 with a best of 5/21 and one five-for.
What Remains: Karnali First, Warner Maybe
Remaining fixtures are Match 10 against Karnali Yaks on Monday 2 November (12:30 PM NST), Match 15 against Biratnagar Kings on Thursday 5 November, Match 18 against Lumbini Lions on Saturday 7 November (5:00 PM NST), Match 20 against Chitwan Rhinos on Monday 9 November, Match 24 against Sudurpaschim Royals on Friday 13 November, and Match 28 against Pokhara Avengers on Sunday 15 November. Next up is unbeaten table-toppers Karnali at 2–0. Season 3 squad context, from a pre-season report, lists six retained players (Karan KC, Bhim Sharki, Mohammad Adil Alam, Santosh Yadav, Rashid Khan and Shahab Alam), overseas names Warner, KS Bharat, Sahan Arachchige, Sam Heazlett, Smit Patel and William Bosisto, head coach Monty Desai with assistant Binod Das, and Sharad Vesawkar as cricket director. One post-match piece calls Vesawkar head coach. Desai is head coach everywhere else, so cricket director is the role used here.
Warner needs care. Signing is confirmed: the 39-year-old Australian batter signed for Kathmandu after months of negotiations, with the franchise sharing a personal video message from him, and one signing report lists him among the season’s confirmed signings. His signing-announcement video line from September 2026 (excitement about coming to Nepal and joining the Kathmandu squad, ending with a Gorkhali greeting) is usable only as a signing quote, not a season quote. Pre-season arrival wording gave no date, only that he intended to reach Nepal shortly after the Dashain festival. As of Match 5, he had not arrived: a report timed 12:35 PKT on 29 October states plainly that Warner had not yet arrived in Nepal for the first match, and that Bosisto was also unavailable for the opener. A post-match camp hint on the evening of 29 October, attributed to Vesawkar, says Warner could arrive in time for the next game or join the squad soon. That is a hint pointing at Match 10, not a confirmed Match 10 appearance, and this feature does not present Warner playing Match 10 as fact. His own feature stays deferred until he plays. Kathmandu’s Rashid Khan needs a separate clarification: he is Nepali, born 21 February 2001 in Birgunj, a right-arm medium-fast bowler who debuted for Nepal against Bhutan at Kirtipur on 5 December 2019, and in Match 5 he made 17 off 14 and bowled 1 over for 5 runs without a wicket. One squad page erroneously lists an Afghanistan spinner of the same name for Kathmandu. That is wrong and is not repeated here. No Season 3 direct quote from Karan or Desai exists in text sources. Dated Season 2 quotes exist (Desai calling pressure a privilege in November 2025, Karan on Monty Desai’s handling of Nepali players in the same month and on his experience with the national side in July 2025), and none are presented here as current-season quotes.
FAQs
What did Karan KC do in Match 5?
He batted at No. 7 for 8 off 18 balls, caught by Tiwari off Rahul Yadav, and bowled 2 overs for 18 runs without a wicket. Kathmandu won the toss and batted first, were bowled out for 115, and lost by 8 wickets.
What is Karan KC’s NPL record?
He has captained Kathmandu in all three seasons and is the club’s all-time leading wicket-taker with 25 NPL wickets: 12 in Season 1 and 13 in Season 2, joint-most for the team with Shahab Alam. Season 1 ended fifth. Season 2 ended third in the league and fourth overall after the Eliminator loss.
What is Karan KC’s hat-trick story?
On 31 March 2022 against Papua New Guinea at Kirtipur, he took 5/21 in 3.4 overs with a hat-trick in the final over, becoming the first Nepali to take a hat-trick in a T20 international and the first Nepali to claim five wickets in the format, in a 37-run win.
Has David Warner arrived for Kathmandu?
Signing is confirmed, but as of Match 5 he had not arrived in Nepal. A post-match camp hint said he could arrive in time for the next game or join the squad soon — a hint pointing at Match 10, not a confirmed appearance.
