NPL 2026
Who will win the Nepal Premier League 2026?
Lumbini Lions began their defence the way holders should. On the first night of the new season in Kirtipur, they bowled Sudurpaschim Royals out for 87 and won by seven wickets.
Kishor Mahato took 4 for 14, and Sher Malla walked off as player of the match. The Lions needed only 9.5 overs to knock off the runs, which left the Royals with a short league stage to put right a very long evening.
Yet the side our model makes favourites for the crown was not even on the field that night. Biratnagar Kings have never won the title. Andre Russell is one of three overseas signings who rebuilt them, and our model puts them ahead of the holders even after the Lions’ flying start.
NPL 2026 dates, format and holders
The third season of the Nepal Premier League runs from 26 October to 21 November. Every match is played at the Tribhuvan University ground in Kirtipur, on the edge of Kathmandu, so no side travels and every side learns the same pitches.
The eight sides play each other once, 28 league matches in all, and the top four go through to the playoffs. A first Qualifier and an Eliminator come first, then a second Qualifier, with the final on the last night of the season.
Janakpur Bolts won the first season and Lumbini Lions the second, so the Lions start as holders. The big change this season is in the squads, which now carry six to eight overseas players each, while an XI still fields seven Nepali players and four from overseas. Every side therefore has more stars than it has room to play, and the choice of which of them take the field will shape a good many matches.
Who our model fancies to win the NPL 2026
Our model makes Biratnagar Kings favourites, with a 36% chance of the title after the opening match. That puts them narrowly ahead of the holders and well clear of the six sides behind them.
Andre Russell, Angelo Mathews and Charith Asalanka all arrive at once, three overseas signings brought in to rebuild the Kings. Between them they could fill most of the overseas places in the XI on their own. Sandeep Lamichhane is the captain who has to make it all fit together.
That puts the most experienced T20 cricketer in the league and Nepal’s best-known cricketer in the same dressing room. Our model rates the result above every other side in the field, holders included, and that verdict held even after the Lions opened with such an emphatic win.
Can Lumbini Lions defend their NPL title?
Our model makes the Lions second favourites, close behind the Kings and with a wide gap back to everyone else. Rohit Paudel’s side are the holders, and they already have one win in the bag.
Their title last season came the hard way. They finished fourth, won the Eliminator and kept on winning until the trophy was theirs. A side that has done that once knows it does not need to top the table to finish on top.
Their overseas name is D’Arcy Short, but their first night was won by two Nepali bowlers, Mahato and Malla. That matters in a league where most of every XI is Nepali, and it is why the Lions look the one side able to stay with the Kings over four weeks.
Who will make the NPL 2026 playoffs?
The Lions look the safest side in the league to reach the last four. Our model gives them an 89% chance of a top-four finish, the best of any side, helped by a win already banked against one of their closest rivals.
The Kings are close behind them on that count too, and then the rest are well back. In our model’s view, the Royals and Kathmandu Gorkhas lead the scramble for the last two places, with Pokhara Avengers the next side hoping one of them slips.
With each side playing every other only once, there is little room to recover from a bad start. That is why the Royals’ heavy defeat on the first night stings, and why the Gorkhas, who sit right on the edge of the four, cannot afford a slow first week.
Can Sudurpaschim Royals finally win a final?
Our model makes Sudurpaschim Royals third favourites, which takes some believing after the first night. They were bowled out in 17.2 overs, and the Lions chased the runs down at a canter.
In their favour, Dipendra Singh Airee’s side have reached both finals the league has staged. Against that, they lost both, to two different sides, and began this season by losing to the champions again.
Sherfane Rutherford is their overseas name, and Airee’s batters need far more from him and from themselves than they found on the first night. One heavy defeat can be put right over a full league stage, and our model still has them third in the race for the four. Another final would surprise nobody, though winning one would be news.
The rest of the NPL 2026 field
Kathmandu Gorkhas are fourth in our model’s title race, and much of their hope rests on David Warner opening the batting for the capital’s side. Karan KC captains them, and they look the side best placed to break up the top three.
Pokhara Avengers, captained by Kushal Bhurtel, have Shakib Al Hasan. Chitwan Rhinos, under Kushal Malla, have Sikandar Raza and Ravi Bopara. Karnali Yaks, led by Sompal Kami, have David Miller. Our model puts those three next, in that order, all some way short of the leading pack.
Janakpur Bolts are last in our model’s list. Harmeet Singh’s side signed Moeen Ali and James Neesham, two seasoned T20 cricketers, and our model’s low opinion of them shows how much still rests on the Nepali players around the overseas stars. The first champions start this season as the side with the most to prove.
Is the Nepal Premier League growing?
It is, if the overseas signings are the measure. Count the overseas players who started the season with 300 or more men’s T20 matches behind them, our stand-in for seasoned star power, and this season has signed eight.
The first season leaned on Ravi Bopara and Shikhar Dhawan, and last season brought Faf du Plessis and Jason Roy. Those were good names, but there were few of them. This season Bopara is back, and Andre Russell, David Warner and Shakib Al Hasan lead a far longer list of new arrivals.
The bigger overseas squads feed it, giving sides room to sign more than one big name. Yet the opening match, between the Lions of D’Arcy Short and the Royals of Sherfane Rutherford, was settled by Nepali bowlers.
Big names to watch
Andre Russell is the most experienced T20 cricketer in the league, with more than 550 men’s T20 matches behind him. He is the headline signing in the Biratnagar Kings rebuild, and their chances in a tight finish rest heavily on him. With overseas places in an XI so precious, the Kings will want his bowling as much as his hitting.
David Warner plays his first NPL for Kathmandu Gorkhas and opens their batting. Every match is on one ground, so an opener who reads the Kirtipur pitch quickly can set the tone for his side all season. Our model has the Gorkhas in a tight race for the last playoff places, and fast starts from Warner in the first week could be the difference between fourth and fifth.
Sandeep Lamichhane, Nepal’s best-known cricketer, captains Biratnagar Kings and leads their spin. He shared the most wickets in the league last season with 17, and he is the home-grown heart of the side our model rates highest.
Young players to watch
Sher Malla, 23, has 24 NPL wickets for Lumbini Lions, joint third most in the league’s history. Last season he shared top spot among the wicket-takers with Lamichhane and was named emerging player, then earned a first Nepal call-up for the T20 World Cup. He is already this season’s first player of the match.
Gulshan Jha, 20, made Nepal’s T20 World Cup squad as a batting all-rounder who hits in the middle order. At Karnali Yaks this season he bats alongside David Miller, a seasoned hitter to learn from. A big season from him would carry the Yaks further than our model expects.
Kushal Malla, 22, already captains Chitwan Rhinos. He scored a T20 international hundred for Nepal as a teenager, and he bowls as well as bats. Leading a dressing room with Sikandar Raza and Ravi Bopara in it will test him in new ways. Our model has the Rhinos well short of the playoffs, so they need a big season from their young captain.
Our verdict on who wins the NPL 2026
Our model makes Biratnagar Kings the most likely winners of the NPL 2026, with the holders close behind. Russell, Mathews and Asalanka give them overseas experience right through the side, and Lamichhane is a captain who knows how to take wickets in this league.
The Lions are the side the Kings should fear. On the first night their Nepali bowlers tore through the Royals without needing their overseas stars, and that attack knows the Kirtipur pitches as well as anyone. Our model makes them the likeliest side in the field to reach the last four, and a top-two finish brings two chances to reach the final.
The crown sits with the Lions for now. By our model’s reckoning the Kings are the likeliest side to prise it loose over the next four weeks in Kirtipur, though the holders will not hand it over quietly.