Kushal Bhurtel: Ricky Ponting fan, bodybuilder, avid dishwasher, top-order heartbeat

He dreams of playing against Australia someday, and insists that it can happen at this World Cup

Shashank Kishore

Feb 11, 2026, 5:40 PM • 10 hrs ago

Kushal Bhurtel remembers March 2014 fondly.

It's the first time he saw Nepal play on live television, during the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. When, like much of the country, he watched wide-eyed as history unfolded and they famously beat Afghanistan.

Like many of his current team-mates, Bhurtel was an Australia fan until then. "Hardcore Australia fan," he says. "You won't believe it, but when Daren Sammy hit James Faulkner for those two sixes to finish the game, I cried. It hurt."

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Bhurtel breaks into a laugh, remembering his 17-year-old self. "When Nepal beat Afghanistan in that tournament, that was the turning point for me. My interest grew. I dreamt of us playing Australia one day."

Twelve years on, it was the first thing Bhurtel checked when the fixtures of the current T20 World Cup were announced. "I was disappointed we [Australia and Nepal] weren't in the same group," he says. "Hopefully if we make the Super Eights, who knows?"

They won't be in the same Super Eights group, you want to tell Bhurtel, but if Nepal make the semi-finals...

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Bhurtel was a diehard Ricky Ponting fan. "That's why my jersey number is 14," he says. In his early teens, he wasn't just interested in cricket but dabbled with football and bodybuilding too. When 2014 happened, he went all-in on cricket.

"Growing up, until about 2011 I played football because it was less expensive," he says. "My father was away building his career in South Korea. But when he returned to Nepal for good [in 2011-12] he encouraged me to play and work hard."

Within two years of being in a formal coaching set-up, Bhurtel was representing Nepal at the Under-19 World Cup in 2016 as a lower-order batter and seamer. They made the quarter-finals, beating New Zealand and Ireland in the group stages.

Bhurtel had modest returns, and struggled to make the step up to higher levels. That he was no longer eligible to play in the Under-19s made it harder for him, because tours were few and far between, with the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) disbanded by the ICC.

To Bhurtel's great fortune, he found like-minded friends who would go on to become "brothers for life." Bhurtel, Dipendra Singh Airee, Rohit Paudel, Sundeep Jora and Kamal Airee would all train together at Tribhuvan University.

The others, all younger than Bhurtel, were then still part of the Under-19 structure. As familiarity grew, the five, all from different parts of Nepal, decided to live and train together in Kathmandu. This was in 2017.

"We rented a two-bedroom apartment for NPR 7000," Bhurtel remembers. "Kya din the [What a time it was]. Each of us used to push the other. We wouldn't miss training even for a single day. We would feed each other, learn from each other. We'd go at eight in the morning, come back at five in the evening.

"Then we'd cook and clean dishes, taking turns. Those were some of my most favourite moments as a cricketer. We dreamt of playing for Nepal together."

That dream was realised in 2024, when all five were part of the squad that played the T20 World Cup in the USA and the Caribbean. Four of them are playing the 2026 edition - Bhurtel, Paudel, Airee and Jora.

"We still reminisce about those days," Bhurtel says. "We were like brothers. No fights, no insecurities, no jealousy, nothing. Just one dream: of playing together."

In 2018, Bhurtel joined the army on a sports-quota job, while the others played in the Under-19s. The income he earned helped keep him going.

"It helped pay rent in Kathmandu, sometimes when the others didn't have money, Dipendra and I would chip in and cover up for them. It kept my cricket going. I didn't want to go back to my village. Staying back and training together, even if I didn't get many chances, was the best decision."

It wasn't until 2021 that Bhurtel found an opening, when strong batting performances at the top of the order in the Pokhara Premier League earned him an international debut. And two years on, he went from being a middle-order bat in the national team to a hard-hitting opener and handy legspinner.

Bhurtel says he must have bowled at least "400 to 500 balls" every session at national camps since his debut. "I'd do spot bowling for hours. I didn't know how to bowl a googly then. Just bowling all those hours, I managed to master it."

Years of spot bowling came in handy when Bhurtel picked up a four-for in that famous T20 World Cup game against South Africa in St. Vincent. "We lost by one run," he says, ruefully. But his eyes light up when you remind him of the wickets he picked up. "Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen," he says.

Then he breaks into a backstory. "Actually the legspin is because…"

He pauses. "My back broke."

Was it an injury picked up due to his fascination for bodybuilding or gym work?

"Bartan and kapde [washing utensils and clothes]," he replies, laughing. "When we lived together, the five of us, we didn't have money to buy a washing machine. All those years of washing vessels and clothes gave me a lower-back issue, so I decided to shift to spin.

"Thank god for that injury. I learned a second skill."

Bhurtel is a proper cricket nut. We speak on the day his team finished their last game at the Nepal Premier League, after his head coach Stuart Law has sought him out to tell him to not hit the gym or train for a few days afterwards.

"I still came, aadat hai [it's a habit]," he says. "I can't sit still at home. I have to either be at the gym or on the ground in the mornings. Otherwise it feels like something is incomplete."

Former Nepal coach Monty Desai says he hasn't seen a player more resilient than Bhurtel.

In 2023, Nepal, on the verge of losing ODI status, were about to play a crucial fixture against Namibia when Bhurtel received a call from home. His mother had suffered from burns. Bhurtel made a quick dash home, brought his mother to Kathmandu for treatment, and then took the field against Namibia.

He mustered up all his strength and courage and scored his maiden ODI century. It was the start of a glorious run of 11 wins in 12 matches that propelled Nepal into the 2023 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe.

"Monty sir, I owe a lot to him," Bhurtel says. "All the coaches I've worked under have helped me. Manoj Prabhakar [in 2022] backed me as a legspinner. Stuart Law is a great motivator. Monty sir - he was amazing, not just for how he helped on the field, but off the field as well.

"The team bonding, ethos, value of being disciplined, I've learned so much. In fact, when he finished his tenure as Nepal coach last year, even my sister was very emotional. He connected with the team as family."

On Thursday, when Bhurtel plays Italy, Desai will be watching him, and the rest of his team-mates, from the stands at the Wankhede Stadium. Perhaps there'll also be a quiet message, that playing Australia may not be far off should Nepal continue to play the way they have done.

Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo

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