Sandeep Lamichhane

Sandeep Lamichhane was born on August 2, 2000 in Aruchaur Talpokhari of Syangja district, Nepal. His father Chander Narayan Lamichhane works for the Indian Railways. His mother Kopila Devi is a homemaker. He has two siblings, Mohan Lamichhane (brother) and Indu Lamichhane (sister).

Sandeep spent his early years in India and studied till the fourth grade there. He later joined the Chitwan Cricket Academy in Nepal, where he was selected by the former national team skipper Raju Khadka who groomed him.

Sandeep Lamichhane began playing cricket at the Chitwan Cricket Academy. His bowling skills impressed the Canadian coach Pubudu Dassanayake who selected him for the youth camp when he was just 14. In 2016, Sandeep made it to the ICC Under-19 World Cup squad and showcased his bowling talent by picking up five wickets and snaring a hat trick against Ireland by sending Lorcan Tucker, Adam Dennison, and Fiachra Tucker to the pavilion in succession. He was given the Man of the Match award for achieving the tournament's best bowling scores of 5/27.

In the 5th place playoff match against the Pakistan U-19 team, he took three wickets for 53 runs, and in the 7th place playoff match against Namibia U-19 team, he again took three wickets for 35 runs. In fact, he completed the tournament by picking 14 wickets.

On April 16, 2016, he made his debut in the 2015-17 ICC World Cricket League Championship against Namibia. Former Australian captain Michael Clarke admired Sandeep’s passion and talent when he played with him during the Hong Kong Twenty20 blitz in May 2016. Clarke invited him to play at the Western Suburbs District Cricket Club in Sydney in September 2016. The following year, he played at ACC Under-19 Asia Cup and picked five wickets against Malaysia U-19 team, which was restricted to only 45 runs.

His reputation spread far and wide, and in January 2018, Delhi Daredevils bought him at the auction for Indian Premier League (IPL), making him the first Nepalese cricketer to participate in IPL. In January, he was also selected for Nepal's 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament and he was awarded the Man of the Match in the first match of the tournament against Namibia for taking four wickets for 18 runs in 8.2 overs. In the match against the United Arab Emirates, he took three wickets for 30 runs. In the match against Kenya, he picked five wickets for 20 runs. He was eventually awarded the Player of the Tournament.