Mumbai: Italy have won the toss and elected to bat against Nepal in their second match of the 2026 T20 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. Italy’s captain, Wayne Madsen, is missing the match due to injury; Harry Manenti is captaining the side.
After winning the toss, Italy’s stand-in captain Manenti said, “We’ll bowl today. There were some nerves there, of course, like any game of international cricket. I think it just didn’t work out for us on the day. A few things clearly went the wrong way for us. Losing our skipper, Wayne Madsen, was probably a turning point, and then we didn’t manage to get back that momentum in a crucial period of the game. Scotland are a good side, and today we take on another good side in Nepal, so we’re really looking forward to it. He’s played a lot of cricket for Italy, and I’m really looking forward to watching him.”
“Our focus point has been bravery the whole time. We’re playing against teams who are well above us in the world rankings, and from the outside looking in, we’re the outsiders. But within our squad, we believe strongly in our abilities. We’re trying to be brave and take the game on, and hopefully we’ll see that today. We’ve moved on slightly from then, and Italy cricket has moved on a long way since that stage,” he added
While Nepal’s captain Rohit Paudel said, “We would have bowled, to be honest. The toss is something that’s not in our control. We’ll make the most of batting first. It’s the same wicket where the last game was played, and it should spin in the second innings, so we’ll try to use that. I think it’s a great advantage, especially playing in Asian conditions. Playing all our games here at the Wankhede helps, and we’ll try to make the most of it.”
“We felt that’s the area we can improve from the last game, in both departments – batting and bowling. The last three to four overs have been very crucial for us. That’s where we need to hold our nerves, absorb the pressure, and be present in that moment. It’s great to have fans like them; they motivate us a lot. After the England game, we saw many social media posts showing people watching us live back in Nepal. That gives a lot of motivation to all the boys,” he added.
Playing XIs:
Nepal: Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh (wk), Rohit Paudel (c), Dipendra Singh Airee, Aarif Sheikh, Lokesh Bam, Gulsan Jha, Karan KC, Nandan Yadav, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi
Italy: Anthony Mosca, Justin Mosca, JJ Smuts, Harry Manenti (c), Ben Manenti, Marcus Campopiano, Grant Stewart, Gian Meade (wk), Jaspreet Singh, Crishan Kalugamage, Ali Hasan.
(IANS)
