Janakpur Bolts 2026 Squad, 2025 Results & Stats

Janakpur Bolts represent Janakpur and Madhesh Province in the Nepal Premier League. Dream Sports Pvt. Ltd. acquired the founding franchise in 2024, and captain Anil Kumar Sah led it to the competition's first championship.

The Bolts finished second in the 2024 league table at 5–2, lost Qualifier 1, then beat Karnali Yaks in Qualifier 2 and Sudur Paschim Royals by five wickets in the final. Lahiru Milantha's 293 runs and Lalit Rajbanshi's 17 wickets were the leading tournament totals.

Their title defence ended in the 2025 league stage. Janakpur lost its first four matches, chased 177 against Chitwan Rhinos for its only win, then lost the final two fixtures to finish eighth with two points and a -0.458 net run rate.

Janakpur retained only five players for Season 3: Anil Kumar Sah, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Mayan Yadav, Aaditya Mahata and Bikash Aagri. Seven auction purchases and one wish-list selection then took the confirmed domestic group to 13.

The auction additions were Trit Raj Das, Abhisekh Tiwari, Bishal Kumar Patel, Rit Gautam, Santosh Karki, Aashutosh Pandey and Bishal Susling. Amar Singh Routela, initially unsold, joined through the post-auction wish list.

CAN's process reserves a 14th domestic place for a talent-hunt player. Overseas signings are separate, so 13 is a dated pre-season snapshot rather than a final full squad or a predicted playing XI.

Janakpur released Aasif Sheikh after he served as the 2025 marquee player. Lumbini Lions then signed him at the Season 3 auction, so the old club squad page is not a reliable 2026 roster.

Lalit Rajbanshi represented Janakpur at the auction as its new marquee player. That label identifies the franchise's designated marquee; it does not automatically transfer the on-field captaincy.

Anil Kumar Sah was separately retained as captain in the team's Season 3 reporting. The clean current description is therefore Lalit as marquee and Anil as captain unless a later first-party announcement changes either role.

No. Anil began the title defence as the regular captain, but the leadership changed during the seven-match campaign.

Wayne Parnell captained the match against Sudur Paschim Royals while Anil was rested, becoming the first overseas player to lead a team in the NPL. Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton was then named captain in Janakpur's final league match against Karnali Yaks.

The page therefore keeps Anil as the season's regular captain while recording Parnell and Loftie-Eaton's match-specific roles. A roster label cannot replace the captain shown on each dated scorecard.

Janakpur's 2024 title did not carry points or a playoff place into 2025. The defending champions lost their first four matches and were already chasing the season before their only win against Chitwan.

That six-wicket chase of 177 ended the losing start, but defeats to Lumbini and Karnali followed. One win from seven produced two points, a -0.458 net run rate and eighth place.

The contrast is exact rather than rhetorical: Janakpur went 7-3 across the 2024 league and playoffs, then 1-6 in the 2025 league stage. Champion status describes a completed season; it offers no protection in the next table.

Not yet. The club identifies Shree Ram Janaki International Cricket Stadium in Janakpur as its home ground, but every NPL 2025 match was staged at TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur.

A franchise's represented city and declared home identity do not prove that the next tournament schedule will allocate a match there. CAN had not published a team-by-team Season 3 fixture list with confirmed dates, start times and venues by 12 August.

The page therefore preserves the Janakpur home identity, records Kirtipur as the actual 2025 venue and leaves the 2026 schedule pending instead of inventing a home fixture.