Pokhara Avengers Ready with Big Overseas Names
November 4, 2024 | Diwas Lamichhane 170 ReadsPokhara Avengers has already announced its full quota of overseas players including the likes of power hitter Andres Gous from USA, fiercy Trinidadian pacer Anderson Philip, star Dutch allrounder Bas de Leede from Netherlands and rangy English legspinning allrounder Matt Critchley. Similarly, Chennai Super Kings' batting and fielding coach Rajiv Kumar has been announced as a head coach. Moreover, the South African professional known best for his great fielding has been appointed as advisor and consultant for Pokhara Avengers. They are set up to make huge impact on the Nepal Premier League playing for the Pokhara Avengers franchise.
Rajiv Kumar (Head Coach)
Rajiv Kumar, with his IPL experience as a batting and fielding coach of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is set to join Pokhara Avengers as a head coach of the team. He has also worked as a head coach of Himachal Pradesh, India A team from 2016 to 2018 and India Blue Team in 2017. He is a 47 year old high profile Indian coach with lots of experiences to provide.
Jonty Rhodes (Advisor & Consultant)
Jonathan Neil "Jonty" Rhodes is a former South African cricket player who is regarded as one of the greatest fielders of all time. He is the fielding coach of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League and the consultant fielding coach of the Sri Lanka team.
He was a middle-order batsman for South Africa national team who averaged around 35 runs in both Test and ODI formats in the international level. He has worked with couple of franchises in the IPL as a fielding coach and as of now, he has signed a 3-years contract for Pokhara Avengers as a mentor role for the first edition of the Nepal Premier League (NPL).
Andries Gous (USA)
Andries Gustav Stephanus Gous is a South Africa born right handed wicket-keeper batsman who plays for United States national team at the international level. He has been previously involved with South Africa Under-19s and franchises like Toronto Nationals and Trinbago Knight Riders.
Gous has had a phenomenal impact playing for the USA Cricket Team averaging 76 in ODI in 3 matches and 33 in T20Is in 21 matches. He likes to deal with boundaries more than taking those singles and doubles. He has that ability to consistently score runs and hit big shots along with his excellent skills with the wicket-keeping gloves.
Recently, he managed to trouble Nepal in first two matches of the T20I series held in USA where he scored 30(25) and 62(43) respectively. Although Nepal whitewashed the series, his capabilities with the bat can't go unseen.
Bas de Leede (Netherlands)
Bastiaan Franciscus Wilhelmus de Leede is a Dutch allrounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm medium. He played his ODI debut match against Nepal and T20I debut against Ireland in 2018. He has played for franchises like MI Emirates, Durham and many others.
He averages 27.88 with bat in 38 matches and 33 wickets in T20 Internationals. He has been in limelights since the last ODI World Cup where he delivered promising impacts with both bat and ball specially the knock against Pakistan of 67 runs withe bat and 4 wickets with the ball.
Bas de Leede's presence in the NPL playing for the Pokhara Avengers franchise is set to provide huge impact as a quality allrounder with lots of experiences.
Anderson Phillip (West Indies) :
Anderson Phillip is a Trinidadian right-arm express pace bowler who made his international debut for the West Indies cricket team in March 2021. He is quite good with the bat too along with his pace clicking those 140 kmph+ deliveries.
During the 2023/24 West Indies First-Class Championship, Philiip took 29 wickets in seven matches playing for Trinidad & Tobago. He has made 2 Test Matches and 5 ODI appearances for West Indies where he took 3 and 4 wickets respectively.
Philip has been a part of the CPL with Trinbago Knight Riders in the past where he could manage 1 wicket in 4 matches played. He has picked 10 wickets in 18 innings in T20s with and economy of 9.45 runs per over.
Matt Critchley (England)
Matthew James John Critchley is an English legspinning allrounder who is currently playing for Essex County Cricket Club having played for Derbyshire for past seven years. He also played the Big Bash League for Melbourne Renegades with a batting average of 35 runs and a couple of wickets in 6 matches. Moreover, he provided his services in other leagues such as The Hundred, Vitality Blast and so on.
Critchley has played almost 150 T20 matches where he has a batting average of 21.44 and has bagged 120 wickets by his name with an economy of 8 runs per over. With the inclusion of this talented allrounder who has decent batting and bowling capabilities, the avengers squad seem to be perfectly balanced.
Full Squad List of Pokhara Avengers (excluding 1 local player not accounced) :
Marquee Player:
Grade A Players:
- Sagar Dhakal (15L)
- Akash Chand (11.5L)
- Dilip Nath (10L)
Grade B Players:
- Kiran Thagunna (10L)
- Narayan Joshi (10L)
- Bipin Khatri (10L)
- Sunam Gautam (5L)
Grade C Players:
- Trit Raj Das (5L)
- Dinesh Kharel (2L)
- Amrit Gurung (2L)
International Signings:
- Andries Gous (USA)
- Bas de Leede (NED)
- Anderson Phillip (WI)
- Matt Critchley (ENG)