Meet the young guns defending India’s Under-19 World Champs title

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Coached by former India-player Paras Mhambrey, the Under-19 Indian cricket team heads into the tournament as one of the favourites, and is confident of defending the title it won in New Zealand under now India-player Prithvi Shaw. India is the most successful team in the tournament with four title-wins till now. India great Rahul Dravid, who was the coach when India won in New Zealand, and is now the director of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, noted in an interview to Sportstar last year, “This squad is as good as the previous one, with plenty of depth and skill. All the boys are new. One of the things that we have done over the years is that we have ensured that no one plays more than one World Cup.”

Below we look at the 15-member squad: (five were bought during the IPL auction 2020)

1) Priyam Garg (c): Sunrisers Hyderabad – INR 1.9 crore Born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Garg, made his first-class debut in 2018, with a double-century against Goa, playing his first Ranji Trophy match. He is a middle-order batsman, and has scored 867 runs in 12 first-class matches so far. As the captain, he led the team to a tri-nation series win in England last year, and a four-nation series win in South Africa earlier this year.

2) Dhruv Chand Jurel (vc & wk) Deputy to Garg, team’s first-choice wicket-keeper, and middle-order batsman, Jurel comes from Uttar Pradesh. He has scored a century in the recently-concluded quadrangular series, which India won.

3) Yashasvi Jaiswal: Rajasthan Royals – INR 2.4 crore He is team’s batting mainstay, and has scored 779 runs in 13 List A games till now. He shot into fame by hitting a double century in India’s domestic 50-over competition, the Vijay Hazare Trophy – youngest player to do so. Born in Uttar Pradesh, he plays for Mumbai.

4) Ravi Bishnoi: Kings XI Punjab – INR 2 crore A leg-spinner, Bishnoi plays for Rajasthan. He hails from Jodhpur, and gets sharp turn even when he bowls a googly. In youth ODIs, he has taken 12 wickets.

5) Kartik Tyagi: Rajasthan Royals – INR 1.3 crore He is a fast bowler, who comes from Uttar Pradesh. Constantly clocking 140 kmh, he was fast-tracked into the state’s Ranji team, after he bowled his state’s Under-19 team to victory against defending champion Vidarbha in the Cooch Behar Trophy.

6) Akash Singh: Rajasthan Royals – INR 20 lakh He is a left-armer, and likely to open India’s bowling along with Tyagi at the World Cup. He has taken nine wickets in as many matches in age-group cricket.

7) Atharva Ankolekar Team’s left-arm spinner, he came into focus when he took 5/28 against Bangladesh in last year’s Under-19 Asia Cup final. As of now, he has taken 15 wickets at an average of 11.80.

8) Tilak Varma Comes from Telegana, and averages 41.07 for the India Under-19 team. Bats up the order, is left-handed, and if need be, can bowl off-spin too.

9) Divyaansh Saxena Coming from the powerhouse Mumbai, Saxena has scored almost 600 runs in 13 matches for the India Under-19. He is also a left-hand batsmen, giving variety to the team’s batting line-up.

10) Kumar Kushagra (wk) Comes from Dhoni’s Jharkhand, and is the back-up wicket-keeper of the team.

11) Shashwat Rawat A left-handed batsman, as well as a right-arm medium pacer, he come from Uttarakhand. He has scored almost 250 runs for the India Under-19.

12) Siddhesh Veer Replaced the injured Divyansh Joshi, plays age-group cricket in Maharashtra, and has scored 48 against South Africa and 71 against New Zealand in the just-concluded quadrangular series.

13) Shubhang Hegde Left-arm spinner and left-hand batsman, Hegde has played just one first-class match for Karnataka.

14) Sushant Mishra Also from Dhoni’s Ranchi, he is a left-arm pacer, who has taken 29 wickets in 13 matches for India Under-19.

15) Vidyadhar Patil Has played in the Karnataka Premier League, and bowls right-arm fast-medium. Has taken 13 wickets in 12 matches for India Under-19.

India starts the U19 World Cup campaign with massive wins over Sri Lanka and Japan

Summary: India Under-19 297/4 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 59, Priyam Garg 56; Ashian Daniel 1/39) beat Sri Lanka Under-19 207 all out (Nipun Dananjaya 50, Ravindu Rasantha 49; Akash Singh 2/29) by 90 runs Summary: India Under-19 42/0 beat Japan Under-19 41 all out (Ravi Bishnoi 5/4, Kartik Tyagi 10/3, Akash Singh 11/2)