Biography & Career Overview
Nandan Kumar Yadav is a Nepali international cricketer, a right-arm fast-medium bowler whose international record reads 22 wickets in 19 Twenty20 Internationals and 12 wickets in 10 One Day Internationals as at 2 October 2026, the date the statistics on this page were last read. He bats in the lower order. He was born on 27 July 2000 in Bariyarpatti, a village in Siraha district in Nepal's eastern Terai, and he took his first international cap at 24, later than most bowlers who reach one. His debut year covered a Twenty20 International against Qatar in Hong Kong, an One Day International against the Netherlands in Dundee, and a five-wicket haul in Australia. In February 2026 he played all four of Nepal's group matches at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, and in the first of them, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, he removed the England captain Jos Buttler and then Harry Brook in a three-over spell that cost 25 runs.
His international record as of 2 October 2026 reads 22 wickets in 19 T20Is and 12 wickets in 10 ODIs. Those are the settled numbers. This profile keeps them apart from the details the public record has not settled: his exact birthplace, the label on his bowling action, and a career total that two statistics sites report one run apart. Siraha matters to an archive of Yadav biographies for a reason of its own. The 2011 Nepal census recorded the Yadav share of the population there at 24.4 percent, the highest of any district in the country.
Early Life: Siraha and the Yadav belt of the Terai
The record of his childhood is thin. Wikipedia's infobox gives his birthplace as Siraha. Cricnepal, the Nepali cricket site that has followed his career match by match, gives the village as well: Bariyarpatti, in Siraha. Both place him in the Terai lowlands along the border with India, inside Madhesh Province. He has played his domestic cricket for Bagmati Province, which is a different province again, and that is where the second set of records puts him: Wikipedia's own category list for his article files him under "People from Makwanpur District" and "Sportspeople from Bagmati Province". Makwanpur is not Siraha. No source consulted for this profile explains the pairing, so this page follows the birthplace fields and leaves the category unreconciled.
The district is a statistically good place to be born with the surname Yadav in Nepal. The 2011 census counted 1,054,458 people in the country as Yadav, 4.0 percent of the population. Its district-level frequencies put Siraha first at 24.4 percent, ahead of Dhanusha at 17.5, Saptari at 15.8, Sarlahi at 15.5 and Mahottari at 15.2. Across Madhesh Province, where Siraha sits, the share was 14.8 percent; in Bagmati Province, which contains Kathmandu, it was 0.2 percent. The 2021 census raised the Yadav count to 1,228,581 people, or 4.21 percent of Nepal's population. Nepal's Central Bureau of Statistics files Yadav inside the broader group it labels Madheshi Other Caste. The community is also recorded as Ahir, Gopa or Gowala, terms used in Nepal more or less interchangeably with Yadav, and the standard accounts describe close ties between the Yadavs of Nepal and those of the Indian state of Bihar, with migration from Bihar into the Terai over generations. The name has held office at the head of the Nepali state: Ram Baran Yadav was the first President of Nepal.
None of the sources behind this profile states which caste group Nandan Yadav's family belongs to, and a surname plus a district is not a family history. The census material appears here because it says where the name sits in Nepal's geography, which is the question an archive of Yadav profiles exists to answer. It is not an assertion about him. Caste searches that reach this page often ask about the community's category in the Indian state of Bihar instead of in Nepal; that record is set out in the Yadav caste category in Bihar.
Entry into cricket: Bagmati Province and the youth circuit
His documented cricket begins inside Nepal's domestic structure. Wikipedia's club table lists Bagmati Province from 2021 to 2025, and Cricnepal reports him as a regular in the Bagmati side. In March 2025 Bagmati announced its squad for the Prime Minister Cup with Prithu Baskota to lead the team, and Yadav's name was in that announcement. Cricbuzz lists his teams as Nepal Under-19 then Nepal and the Karnali Yaks, which places him through the age-group system before the national side. From 2026 he is registered with the Nepal APF Club, the team attached to the Armed Police Force.
A T20I cap in Hong Kong, an ODI cap in Dundee
Yadav made his Twenty20 International debut on 9 April 2025 against Qatar at the Mission Road Ground, in the Hong Kong Quadrangular Men's T20 Series. He was the 49th Nepali player to appear in the format and he wears shirt number 22. Cricnepal reported on 13 April 2025 that Nepal fell short on the final day and that Kuwait took the series title.
His ODI debut came on 10 June 2025 at Forthill, a ground in Dundee, in a match in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2, the competition that sits in the pathway to World Cup qualification. He became Nepal's 42nd ODI player. He opened the bowling in the second over of the Netherlands innings and finished with 9 overs, 1 maiden, 39 runs and 3 wickets at an economy rate of 4.33. His victims were the opener Max O'Dowd, then Roelof van der Merwe and Kyle Klein together in the 47th over. Cricnepal's article puts the O'Dowd wicket in his second over in one paragraph and in his fourth over in its own breakdown table; the difference belongs to the site, and on either reading he broke through early. Nepal won the match. With the bat he made 10 not out from 12 balls. Afterwards he said, "It was a special moment for me," and added that he would never forget wearing the Nepal jersey and getting that first wicket.
Five wickets in three overs, in Australia
Nepal travelled to Australia's Northern Territory in August 2025 for the Top End T20 Series, a Twenty20 fixture list outside the international tier. On 20 August Nepal played Hobart Hurricanes Academy, won the toss, batted first and made 180 for 7 in 20 overs. Aasif Sheikh took 29 from 28 balls, Kushal Bhurtel 27 from 20, Aarif Sheikh 33 from 26, and Lokesh Bam ran through the closing overs to lift the total to Nepal's best batting effort of that tournament. Hobart were bowled out for 114 in 16.1 overs and Nepal won by 66 runs. Yadav took 5 for 17 in three overs. It is the only five-wicket haul in his listed record and it was Nepal's first win of the series; the day before, Melbourne Stars Academy had beaten Nepal by 31 runs.
The Nepal Premier League
The franchise competition supplies the other half of his cricket year. Yadav plays for the Karnali Yaks, who took him for the first NPL season in 2024. Across the two completed seasons he has played 16 matches and taken 19 wickets in 48.3 overs at an average of 20.16 and an economy of 7.90, with best figures of 3 for 19 and one maiden. The split is nine matches and nine wickets in 2024, then seven matches and ten wickets in 2025, when his best was 3 for 35. He was named in the Karnali Yaks squad for the 2026 season and had not bowled in it when these figures were read on 2 October 2026. His batting in the league amounts to 9 runs from 8 innings.
The 2026 T20 World Cup
Nepal qualified for the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in October 2025 through the combined Asia and East Asia-Pacific regional final, alongside Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The International Cricket Council named Nepal's squad on 6 January 2026 and Yadav was in it. The tournament was Nepal's third at a T20 World Cup. The side arrived in India having beaten the United Arab Emirates and Canada in warm-up fixtures, and was drawn in Group C against England and the West Indies, plus Italy and Scotland. Scotland appeared in the group only after Bangladesh withdrew from the tournament and the ICC took the next highest-ranked T20I team in their place.
On 8 February 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium, Yadav played his first World Cup match. The selectors rested the experienced pacer Sompal Kami and picked Yadav in the eleven. England won the toss and batted first. They finished on 184 for 7. Yadav took 2 for 25 from three overs: Buttler, captaining England, caught behind by Aasif Sheikh for 26 from 17 balls, and Harry Brook caught by Sher Malla for 53 from 32. Phil Salt was out in the second ball of his innings, caught by Sandeep Lamichhane off Sher Malla, Jacob Bethell made 55 from 35 and Will Jacks finished 39 not out from 18. Nepal chased and reached 180 for 6, which stood as their highest innings total in any T20 World Cup. Rohit Paudel made 39 from 34, Dipendra Singh Airee 44 from 29 and Lokesh Bam 39 not out from 20. England won by 4 runs. Airee passed 2,000 runs in T20Is during the match, the first Nepali to reach that mark, Buttler played his 150th T20I, and England and Nepal had never before met in a Twenty20 International.
Nepal lost the next group match, to Italy at the same ground on 12 February, chasing 124 in 12.4 overs for a ten-wicket defeat that was Italy's first win in a World Cup match in any format. On 15 February the West Indies won by 9 wickets at the Wankhede, in front of 19,225, and Nepal were eliminated with one match remaining. Yadav took 1 for 24 in three overs in that game, in which Airee's 58 was the top score of Nepal's 133 for 8. The final group match on 17 February produced a 7-wicket win over Scotland, Airee making 50 not out from 23 balls and Kami taking 3 for 25. It was Nepal's first win in a T20 World Cup match in twelve years. Cricnepal's tournament breakdown records Yadav in four matches, bowling 11 overs and taking 5 wickets at 19.00, with best bowling of 2 for 25. That innings-by-innings figure is the England match, and the West Indies scorecard supplies a second; the arithmetic leaves him in the Italy and Scotland matches as well, though neither of those two scorecards lists him in the extracts consulted here.
His post-match answers on 8 February returned to two things. "I think it's both. There is regret because we came very close and couldn't get over the line, but at the same time, there is pride because we are competing against very strong teams like England," he said. Then, on the last four overs: "We need to focus more on our death bowling. We tend to give away more runs there. Even while batting, saving a few runs or taking more singles can change games like this." He backed Karan KC's decision to refuse a single in the final over so that Bam kept the strike. "At one stage, we were out of the game, but he brought us back with three or four sixes. It was better to keep the strike with him." The crowd, roughly 17,000 and mostly in Nepal's colours, drew a third answer: "That's the love of our crowd. Wherever we go, it feels like home. We are really thankful to them and sorry we couldn't give them the result." Nepal's chance of reaching the Super 8 was still open when he spoke. It closed within the week.
The record, and where the sources part company
The figures below are from Cricnepal's player tables, read on 2 October 2026, cross-checked against Cricbuzz. In T20Is he has played 19 matches and taken 22 wickets in 53.5 overs, conceding 422 runs at an average of 19.18, an economy of 7.84 and a strike rate of 14.68, with best bowling of 2 for 18 and no four-wicket or five-wicket hauls. Cricbuzz, for the same 19 matches, gives 423 runs conceded, an average of 19.23, an economy of 7.86 and best bowling of 2 for 19. The gap is one run across 323 balls and one wicket inside a spell. Neither site accounts for it. His T20I batting reads 8 innings, 4 not out, 81 runs, a highest score of 37, an average of 20.25, a strike rate of 225.00, 4 fours and 8 sixes, and the two sites agree on all of it.
In ODIs he has played 10 matches and taken 12 wickets in 61.1 overs, conceding 340 runs at an average of 28.33, an economy of 5.56 and a strike rate of 30.58, with best bowling of 3 for 39. Both sites give those numbers, along with 7 innings and 24 runs in the field, 10 not out his highest score. Outside the international matches his record carries 26 Twenty20 games and 33 wickets with best bowling of 5 for 17, 14 other one-day matches and 23 wickets with 4 for 31, and 3 matches and 8 wickets in the category Cricnepal labels Other MD, best figures 4 for 32. His most recent T20I was against China at the Singapore National Cricket Ground on 31 May 2026, where he took 1 for 15. His most recent ODI was against Namibia at Sportpark Maarschalkerweerd on 21 July 2026, where he took 1 for 17. Wikipedia's infobox still shows 13 T20Is and 3 ODIs, a snapshot from February 2026 that the article has not been updated to carry.
Playing style
Yadav is a quick bowler used in bursts. Three overs produced his five-wicket haul in Australia and three overs produced both of his World Cup wickets against England, and his listed best in every format arrives inside a short spell. The split between his two international formats is unusual for a pace bowler and runs the wrong way for the usual assumption: he is the more economical one-day bowler (5.56) and the more destructive Twenty20 one (a wicket every 14.68 balls at 7.84), which is the trade a side makes when it uses him at the death in the longer format and in the powerplay in the shorter one. He opens the bowling when selected: on his ODI debut he began the Netherlands innings in the second over and returned for the 47th. His batting is a genuine second skill, not decoration. A strike rate of 225 from 36 T20I balls, with 8 sixes, means Nepal can carry him at number eight without a hole, and he made 10 not out off 12 balls on that debut.
Why They Matter to This Archive
This is the first international cricketer on this site who does not play for India. The eight cricket profiles already in the archive cover Indian international and domestic players, and every one of them carries the nationality India. Yadav belongs to Nepal's national team, and the reason the name travels easily between the two countries is older than either board's selector. The census and migration record above is the frame: a Yadav-surname family in the eastern Terai sits inside a community documented as flowing between Bihar and Nepal over generations, classified by Nepal's statistics office as Madheshi Other Caste, and holding its highest share of any Nepali district in his own.
He also gives the archive a different kind of case from the political profiles. His prominence rests on roughly 18 months of scorecards. There is no decades of news coverage behind him, so almost every claim on this page is dated, checkable against a published total, and narrow enough to be wrong in a specific way. That is the useful property. Read alongside the origins of the Yadav community, the caste guide and the state-wise category listing, and alongside the cricketers section where Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Radha Yadav and Suryakumar Yadav hold the Indian end of the same surname, he extends the record of that name in the sport across a border. Our guide to Yadav names in the news is where disambiguation between the many bearers of it is documented.
How This Profile Was Verified
Career figures come from Cricnepal's player profile and its statistics tables, both read on 2 October 2026, and from Cricbuzz's career summary for the same player, read the same day. Ball-by-ball detail for the England match on 8 February 2026 comes from the Sky Sports scorecard for that fixture. The West Indies figures, the Italy and Scotland results, the two attendances, Nepal's qualification route, the Bangladesh withdrawal and the record notes come from the Wikipedia article on the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, read on 2 October 2026, whose own citations are to ESPNcricinfo scorecards, the International Cricket Council, Sky Sports, the Guardian, Sportstar, the Kathmandu Post and the Indian Express; ESPNcricinfo's player pages returned an error when this profile tried them directly and are therefore not used as a source here. Post-match remarks are quoted from the Indian Express report of 8 February 2026, and the detail that Sompal Kami was rested comes from myRepublica's report of the same day. Debut detail comes from Cricnepal's reports of 10 and 11 June 2025, the ODI cap number from its report of 10 June 2025, and the Australian spell from its report of 20 August 2025. Census and caste-classification material comes from the Wikipedia article Yadavs of Nepal, read on 2 October 2026, which cites the Central Bureau of Statistics Population Monograph of Nepal, Volume II and the district report of the 2011 census; the CBS file itself did not resolve when tested on 2 October 2026.
Six points are recorded here as unresolved, and none of them has been smoothed over. Birthplace: Bariyarpatti per Cricnepal, Siraha per Wikipedia's infobox, and the same Wikipedia article carries a Makwanpur District category that no consulted source supports. Bowling label: right-arm fast-medium, right-arm medium and right-arm medium-fast across three sources describing one action. Role: bowler at Cricnepal, bowling all-rounder at Cricbuzz. T20I runs conceded: 422 or 423, with best bowling of 2 for 18 or 2 for 19 accordingly. Selection in Nepal's third and fourth World Cup matches, which rests on Cricnepal's four-appearance tournament total. And Wikipedia's international totals, which are stale and were not followed. Where a claim on this page is wrong, our corrections policy explains how to report it and how the fix is dated.
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