T20 Blast 2021: Worcestershire sign Sandeep Lamichhane for the tournament

Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane has signed a deal with Worcestershire for the 2021 T20 Blast as one of their overseas players. This will be the first stint for the 20-year-old in England, having featured before in several other T20 leagues around the globe. On Thursday, Worcestershire head coach Alex Gidman talked about the young spinner and what he adds to the squad. 

The spinner first caught the eyes of the cricket fans when he appeared for the Nepalese U-19 team in the ICC U-19 World Cup 2016 in Bangladesh. After this, he was picked up by Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in the IPL. Post this, he started getting gigs in the T20 Leagues around the globe. His experience includes playing in the Big Bash League, Pakistan Super League, and Caribbean Premier League to name a few. 

Ben Dwarshuis also signed by Worcestershire along with Sandeep Lamichhane

“Sandeep has played in many tournaments and gained a lot of experience in franchise cricket,” Worcestershire’s head coach, Alex Gidman, was quoted by ESPNCricinfo. “He’s a legspinner, which is a bit of mystery spin we believe we need in our squad in terms of balance, so we are ecstatic with the signing,” Gidman added. Lamichhane has a brilliant record in T20s, having taken 125 wickets from his 96 matches with an average of 18.86 and an economy of 6.79.

Gidman further noted that he was confident that the young leggie will do well in his first assignment in England. “We believe and trust that we have got an excellent squad of players ourselves, and it’s about adding to that squad, rather than getting players to replace players, and add to the balance of the team, which we think we’ve done well. This is his first taste of playing in England, and I’m sure he will do well and have an enjoyable summer with us,” Gidman concluded. 

Apart from Lamichhane, Worcestershire also signed Australian left-arm pacer Ben Dwarshuis. Both the overseas players will be available for the entire group stages of the tournament. Worcestershire were the champions of the T20 Blast in 2019 and would be hoping for another title.