Coach: Paras Mhambrey
Captain: Priyam Garg
Best Finish: Champions (2000, 2008, 2012, 2018)
Previous Edition: Champions
Team Overview: The Indian U-19 team is coming into this tournament as the defending champions. A strong unit led by Prithvi Shaw, and other talented young players like Shubman Gill, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti, won the previous edition of the tournament. They were consistent throughout the course of the mega event and the current side led by Priyam Garg would be hopeful of a similar outing this time around.
The squad is well-rounded and consists of players who have already created waves in India’s domestic cricket circles with their performances. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravi Bishnoi are two such names, and both of them earned fat paychecks in the IPL 2020 auctions along with skipper Garg and pacer Kartik Tyagi.
There is a good mix of all-round options in the squad as well. Players like Jaiswal, Divyansh Saxena and Tilak Varma are capable of delivering with both bat and ball. Moreover, there are varied options in terms of specialist bowlers as well. Sushant Mishra–a left-arm seamer– and Atharva Ankolekar–a left-arm orthodox spinner– add good dimension to a bowling arsenal which is already quite strong.
They have been placed in Group A and will lock horns with teams like New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Japan. India appear to be the strongest unit in the group by a fair margin but they shouldn’t take anything for granted as this tournament has seen its share of upsets over the years.
Key Players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra
Squad
Priyam Garg (c), Dhruv Chand Jurel (vc/wk), Atharva Ankolekar, Ravi Bishnoi, Shubhang Hegde, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Sushant Mishra, Vidyadhar Patil, Shashwat Rawat, Divyaansh Saxena, Akash Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Tilak Varma, Siddhesh Veer
Fixtures
Sunday, January 19: India v Sri Lanka (Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein)
Tuesday, January 21: India v Japan (Mangaung Oval)
Friday, January 24: India v New Zealand (Mangaung Oval)