NPL Season 3 Captains: All Eight Leaders and Their Records

Eight captains lead the eight NPL franchises, and after six matches their fortunes could hardly be further apart. Sompal Kami’s Karnali sit top with two wins from two, Rohit Paudel’s defending champions Lumbini carry the best net run rate, and Sandeep Lamichhane’s Biratnagar are still waiting for a first win. Between them sit a World Cup winner’s captain, a Nepal captain, and three men leading sides with very different histories. Every captain below is listed with his team’s record after six matches.

Leaders at the top

Sompal Kami has been the captain of the season so far. Karnali’s 2-0 start comes with a 19-run defence against Janakpur and a record chase of 187 against Biratnagar, and Sompal led both from the front: four for 33 and an unbeaten 62 in the Match 6 win, after taking one wicket in the Match 3 win. His is the third consecutive season as Karnali captain and marquee player, and his side now lead the table on four points.

Rohit Paudel’s Lumbini have played only once, but their 7-wicket win over Sudurpaschim in the opener left them with the best net run rate in the league at plus 4.599. Paudel captained Lumbini to the Season 2 title and was named Player of the Tournament in that campaign, with 276 runs and 10 wickets, and his side meet Chitwan on Saturday in their second match. Kushal Malla’s Chitwan also sit unbeaten after one match, an eight-run win over Biratnagar in Match 2, and Saturday’s game against Lumbini is the first meeting of two unbeaten captains.

Middle of the table

Harmeet Singh leads Janakpur with one win and one loss, and his own bowling has matched the record: three for 22 against Karnali and one for 18 against Kathmandu, alongside Moeen Ali’s unbeaten 58 in Janakpur’s first win of the season. Janakpur won Season 1, and Harmeet’s side sit fourth after six matches, inside the playoff places for now.

Dipendra Singh Airee’s Sudurpaschim sit fifth with the same one-win, one-loss record, but their story is louder: Airee is Nepal’s T20I captain, his side have reached both NPL finals and lost both, and his unbeaten 51 against Pokhara in Match 4 was the innings that got their season moving. Sudurpaschim meet Biratnagar on Saturday evening, a game both captains need.

Still searching

Sandeep Lamichhane’s Biratnagar are the only side to have played twice and lost twice, sitting sixth with a net run rate of minus 0.261. Sandeep’s own figures read one wicket in seven and a half overs at an economy of 7.73, and his side’s next match (against Sudurpaschim on Saturday) is already close to must-win territory for a team that finished third in Season 2.

Karan KC’s Kathmandu have played once and lost once, beaten by eight wickets by Janakpur in Match 5, where Karan scored eight off 18 balls and bowled two wicketless overs. Karan has captained Kathmandu in all three seasons, and his side’s season restarts against Karnali on Monday. Kushal Bhurtel’s Pokhara sit last after one match, a six-wicket loss to Sudurpaschim in which Bhurtel scored 21 and bowled the final over as captain. Pokhara remain the only franchise never to reach the playoffs, and Bhurtel’s side face Janakpur on Sunday.

What the captaincy means from here

Six matches in, the captain’s job has already split in two. Sompal, Paudel and Malla are managing unbeaten starts and the pressure of staying there, while Sandeep, Karan and Bhurtel are managing winless ones and the pressure of stopping the slide. Harmeet and Airee sit between, with one win banked and the playoff race still wide open.

Captains have five or six league matches left each, and the top four reach the playoffs starting 17 November. With no side yet out of the race and no side yet through, the next round of matches, starting with Saturday’s double-header, will decide which of these eight leaders spends November chasing a title and which spends it chasing a first win.