NPL Season 3 Auction 2026: Retained Players, Sold Prices, and Full Team Squads

The Nepal Premier League Season 3 auction wrapped up in Kathmandu on July 6, 2026, closing out a build-up that started weeks earlier when all eight franchises locked in their retained cores. Between the retention window in June and the mini-auction hammer falling that evening, every team's roster took shape — and the biggest storyline of the day had nothing to do with a bidding war: Janakpur Bolts released their own marquee player, wicketkeeper Aasif Sheikh, and watched him become the auction's most expensive buy at a different franchise.

The NPL Season 3 auction was held on July 6, 2026, in Kathmandu. Eight teams retained 52 players in June, then bid on a 155-player pool split into three categories. 37 players sold; Aasif Sheikh fetched the top price of NPR 20 lakh, going to Lumbini Lions after being released by Janakpur Bolts. For live results and squad updates, see the NPL Auction 2026 page.

Quick Facts: NPL Season 3 Auction

Detail	Information
Auction Date	July 6, 2026
Venue	Kathmandu, Nepal
Auctioneer	Devendra Subedi
Organiser	Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN)
Franchises	8 (each building a 16-player squad) — view all NPL teams
Registered Players	347
Auction Pool (Shortlisted)	155 players
Category A / B / C Split	5 / 27 / 123
Players Retained (Pre-Auction)	52 across 8 teams
Reported Sold Total	37 players sold, 118 unsold
Top Sale of the Day	Aasif Sheikh — 20 lakh (Lumbini Lions)
Biggest Purse Entering Auction	Janakpur Bolts — NPR 66.25 lakh
Smallest Purse Entering Auction	Kathmandu Gorkhas — NPR 34 lakh
NPL 2026 Season Window	November 17 – December 13, 2026 — NPL 2026 schedule

Team-Wise Retained Players (Announced June 2026)

Retentions were announced gradually through June, starting with Janakpur Bolts on June 11 and finishing with the remaining seven franchises over the following days. Each team could retain up to seven players from its Season 2 squad, including one designated marquee player.

Team	Retained	Marquee	Key Retained Names
Lumbini Lions	7	Rohit Kumar Paudel	Rohit Kumar Paudel (c), Sher Malla, Dilip Nath, Sundeep Jora, Dinesh Adhikari, Abhisesh Gautam, Tilak Bhandari
Sudurpaschim Royals	7	Dipendra Singh Airee	Dipendra Singh Airee (c), Binod Bhandari, Aarif Sheikh, Ishan Pandey, Abinash Bohara, Hemant Dhami, Hikmat Mahara
Biratnagar Kings	6	Sandeep Lamichhane	Sandeep Lamichhane, Lokesh Bam, Basir Ahamad, Narayan Joshi, Pratish GC, Subash Bhandari
Kathmandu Gorkhas	6	Karan KC	Karan KC (c), Mohammad Aadil Alam, Rashid Khan, Shahab Alam, Santosh Yadav, Bhim Sharki
Pokhara Avengers	6	Kushal Bhurtel	Kushal Bhurtel (c), Arjun Kumal, Dinesh Kharel, Bipin Khatri, Aakash Chand, Kiran Thagunna
Karnali Yaks	7	Sompal Kami	Sompal Kami, Gulshan Kumar Jha, Nandan Yadav, Deepak Dumre, Pawan Sarraf, Unish Bikram Singh Thakuri, Yuvraj Khatri
Chitwan Rhinos	7	Kushal Malla	Kushal Malla, Dev Khanal, Arjun Saud, Kamal Singh Airee, Ranjeet Kumar, Deepak Bohara, Rijan Dhakal
Janakpur Bolts	5	Anil Kumar Sah	Anil Kumar Sah (c), Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Mayan Yadav, Aadity Mahata, Bikash Aagri

Note: Janakpur Bolts retained only five of a possible seven players and released their previous marquee, wicketkeeper-batsman Aasif Sheikh. That single decision reshaped the entire auction — Sheikh went on to attract interest from seven of the eight franchises before Lumbini Lions won him for 20 lakh, the highest fee of the day.

Auction Format and Player Categories

The 155-player shortlist for the mini-auction was drawn from 347 total registrations and split into three tiers by base price, as set out by the Cricket Association of Nepal:

• Category A (base NPR 10 lakh) — 5 players: Arjun Gharti, Bibek Kumar Yadav, Aasif Sheikh, Rupesh Kumar Singh, Trit Raj Das
• Category B (base NPR 5 lakh) — 27 players, including Aakash Tripathi, Amar Singh Rautela, Dipak Bohara, Shubh Kansakar, Sahil Patel, Shankar Rana, Sunil Dhamala
• Category C (base NPR 2 lakh) — 123 players, the largest pool covering domestic and emerging talent such as Gautam KC, Sonu Devkota, Sudip Aryal and Bipin Rawal

Every franchise entered the auction with its retained core already locked, meaning the 155-player pool was strictly for filling the remaining slots toward each team's 16-player squad.

Pre-Auction Purse Standings

Purse size heading into the auction depended directly on how many — and how expensive — players each team retained. This is where Janakpur Bolts' decision to release Aasif Sheikh paid off financially, even if it cost them their headline name.

The live broadcast confirmed two figures explicitly: Janakpur Bolts entered with the largest purse at NPR 66.25 lakh, the direct result of releasing marquee Aasif Sheikh, while Kathmandu Gorkhas entered with the smallest at NPR 34 lakh. Organisers haven't published a full team-by-team pre-auction purse table, so rather than estimate the other six figures, the confirmed post-auction "spent" and "left" totals in the squad table below give the most reliable picture of where each franchise stands financially.

NPL Auction 2026: Confirmed Sold Players List

The auction's live tracker put the final count at 37 players sold out of the 155-player pool by the time bidding wrapped up around 10:30 PM. Below are the confirmed sales with player, buying team and final price.

Player	Team	Base Price	Sold Price (NPR lakh)
Aasif Sheikh	Lumbini Lions	10 lakh (Cat A)	20
Arjun Gharti	Pokhara Avengers	10 lakh (Cat A)	15
Bibek Kumar Yadav	Chitwan Rhinos	10 lakh (Cat A)	15
Rupesh Kumar Singh	Biratnagar Kings	10 lakh (Cat A)	15
Trit Raj Das	Janakpur Bolts	10 lakh (Cat A)	15
Dipak Bohara	Sudurpaschim Royals	5 lakh (Cat B)	10
Kishore Mahato	Lumbini Lions	5 lakh (Cat B)	10
Shubh Kansakar	Karnali Yaks	5 lakh (Cat B)	10
Aakash Tripathi	Lumbini Lions	5 lakh (Cat B)	5
Abhisekh Tiwari	Janakpur Bolts	5 lakh (Cat B)	5
Amar Singh Rautela	Janakpur Bolts	5 lakh (Cat B)	5
Anil Kharel	Sudurpaschim Royals	5 lakh (Cat B)	5
Bipin Prasad Sharma	Karnali Yaks	5 lakh (Cat B)	5
Bishal Kumar Patel	Janakpur Bolts	5 lakh (Cat B)	5
Dilsad Ali	Biratnagar Kings	5 lakh (Cat B)	5
Rit Gautam	Janakpur Bolts	2 lakh (Cat C)	4.25
Sujan Thapaliya	Biratnagar Kings	2 lakh (Cat C)	4.25
Mausam Dhakal	Chitwan Rhinos	2 lakh (Cat C)	3
Santosh Karki	Janakpur Bolts	2 lakh (Cat C)	3
Sudip Aryal	Pokhara Avengers	2 lakh (Cat C)	3
Bibek Kumar Rana Magar	Pokhara Avengers	2 lakh (Cat C)	2.75
Krishna Poudel	Kathmandu Gorkhas	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Bishal Susling Rai	Janakpur Bolts	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Gautam KC	Chitwan Rhinos	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Pratik Shrestha	Biratnagar Kings	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Aashutosh Pandey	Janakpur Bolts	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Sonu Devkota	Kathmandu Gorkhas	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Dayananda Mandal	Kathmandu Gorkhas	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Prasiddha Jaisi	Kathmandu Gorkhas	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Bipin Rawal	Chitwan Rhinos	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Aparajit Poudel	Biratnagar Kings	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Surya Tamang	Karnali Yaks	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Ashok Dhami	Chitwan Rhinos	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Sunny BK	Pokhara Avengers	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Sachin Bhatta	Sudurpaschim Royals	2 lakh (Cat C)	2
Ayub Chand	Sudurpaschim Royals	2 lakh (Cat C)	Not disclosed
Arniko Prasad Yadav	Lumbini Lions	2 lakh (Cat C)	Not disclosed

This covers 35 individually named sales from the public live tracker. Organisers reported 37 total sales, so two additional Category C picks were confirmed in the broadcast without a name reaching the public tracker — we'll update this table once the official scorecard is published.

Data note: Early in the second session, the live blog briefly listed Dilsad Ali among players who "went unsold," before later confirming he was sold to Biratnagar Kings for 5 lakh. We've gone with the later, confirmed sale in the table above.

Unsold Players and Notable Misses

Of the 155-player pool, 118 players went unsold once the mini-auction closed for the day — a reminder of how top-heavy Category C is relative to demand. Confirmed unsold names from the live tracker include:

• Amit Shrestha
• Anuj Kumar Chanara
• Dipesh Kandel (former Nepal U19 player)
• Sunam Gautam

Most unsold Category C players remain eligible for late replacement signings if a franchise needs to fill an injury or availability gap before the season starts on November 17. See the full NPL auction results and NPL 2026 schedule for updates.

Post-Auction Team Squads and Purse Left

Combining each team's retained core with its confirmed auction buys gives the clearest picture yet of where every franchise stands. Squad counts below reflect the players logged on the official tracker as of the auction's close; teams still have room to add players before the 16-man squad deadline.

Team	Squad Filled	Purse Spent (NPR lakh)	Purse Left (NPR lakh)	Notable Auction Buy
Janakpur Bolts	8 / 16	41.25	25	Trit Raj Das (15L)
Biratnagar Kings	8 / 16	37.25	14.25	Rupesh Kumar Singh (15L)
Kathmandu Gorkhas	7 / 16	17	17	Krishna Poudel, Sonu Devkota (2L each)
Lumbini Lions	6 / 16	44	5.25	Aasif Sheikh (20L)
Pokhara Avengers	6 / 16	26.75	18.75	Arjun Gharti (15L)
Karnali Yaks	6 / 16	26	16	Shubh Kansakar (10L)
Chitwan Rhinos	6 / 16	26	16	Bibek Kumar Yadav (15L)
Sudurpaschim Royals	6 / 16	26	16.5	Dipak Bohara (10L)

Lumbini Lions spent the most of any franchise (44 lakh) largely because of the Aasif Sheikh bidding war, leaving them with the tightest remaining purse (5.25 lakh) heading into any later top-up rounds. Kathmandu Gorkhas, by contrast, spent conservatively on volume — seven signings for just 17 lakh — and still hold their full 17 lakh purse untouched relative to what they entered with.

Biggest Buys and Value Picks

Marquee-level buy: Aasif Sheikh's 20 lakh fee to Lumbini Lions is the standout figure of the day — double his 10 lakh base price and made more notable because he was released by his previous franchise, Janakpur Bolts, only weeks earlier.

Best value picks: Several Category C signings at or near base price look like shrewd business on early reporting:

• Sujan Thapaliya (Biratnagar Kings, 4.25 lakh) — an emerging all-rounder bought for barely above his 2 lakh base.
• Rit Gautam (Janakpur Bolts, 4.25 lakh) — won after a tied bid with Kathmandu Gorkhas.
• Bibek Kumar Rana Magar (Pokhara Avengers, 2.75 lakh) — added late to strengthen Pokhara's depth around marquee Kushal Bhurtel.

Biggest strategic gamble: Janakpur Bolts releasing Aasif Sheikh. It freed up the league's largest pre-auction purse (66.25 lakh) but also meant rebuilding a wicketkeeping option from scratch — Bolts ultimately used part of that purse chasing Trit Raj Das (15 lakh) and Rit Gautam instead of re-signing a specialist gloveman.

Expert Analysis

Lumbini Lions enter Season 3 as defending champions with their core almost untouched — Rohit Kumar Paudel and Sher Malla both retained — and have added a genuine upgrade in Aasif Sheikh behind the stumps. The concern is purse discipline: 5.25 lakh left gives them little room for late injury cover.

Sudurpaschim Royals, runners-up in the last two seasons, kept their strongest asset — Dipendra Singh Airee as captain — and quietly added bowling depth in the auction rather than chasing headline names, suggesting they're targeting consistency over a marquee splash.

Biratnagar Kings used their retained core around Sandeep Lamichhane to go big on Rupesh Kumar Singh (15 lakh), continuing the recruitment approach that brought them international names in past seasons.

Kathmandu Gorkhas were the most purse-conscious team of the day, spending just 17 lakh across seven auction buys while keeping their full remaining purse intact — a squad-depth strategy under head coach Monty Desai rather than star-chasing.

Janakpur Bolts made the auction's biggest structural bet by releasing marquee Aasif Sheikh, then spent aggressively (41.25 lakh) to rebuild — headlined by Trit Raj Das at 15 lakh. The Nepal Premier League season kicks off November 17 at venues including the TU International Cricket Ground.