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The 2024 U19 World Cup starts on Friday and with hosts South Africa facing the West Indies and Ireland taking on the USA. The matches will take place simultaneously in Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom. India will be looking to defend their title while taking their tally of victories to six. They are the record winners, with Australia being second in the list of teams to have won the U19 world title most number of times on three.
India’s campaign starts on Saturday with a match against Bangladesh. The tournament has famously been where some of India’s biggest names have first grabbed the spotlight such as Yuvraj Singh in 2000, Rohit Sharma in 2006, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in 2008, Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan in 2016 and more recently the likes of Shubman Gill (2018) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (2020).
The Indian squad
India are being led by Uday Saharan this year, the right-handed top-order batter from Punjab. Saharan had captained India in the U19 Asia Cup last month, where they lost to eventual champions Bangladesh in the semi-final. Saharan is originally from Rajasthan but shifted to Bhatinda, Punjab to pursue cricket. He led Punjab’s U-14s and U-16s and emerged as a prolific run-getter at the U-19 level.
All-rounder Musheer Khan and batter Priyanshu Moliya are the only two players in this squad who have experience in first class cricket. Musheer, younger brother of Mumbai star Sarfaraz Khan, has played three matches for Mumbai while Moliya has seven first class appearances playing for Baroda.
All-rounder Arshin Kulkarni is another star to watch out for. He impressed in the inaugural season of the Maharashtra Premier League, hitting more sixes (19) than any other player despite only playing three games. It is to be noted that this was a tournament in which the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Kedar Jadhav and Rahul Tripathi also participated. This led to him being picked by Maharashtra at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Kulkarni is also one of just two players in this squad who have been signed up in the IPL auctions, being bought by the Lucknow Super Giants. The other is wicketkeeper Aravelly Avanish. He came into the limelight during the U19 quadrangular series involving two India teams alongwith Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Walking in to bat at 95 for 5 in a mammoth chase of 376, Avaneesh ended up smashing 163 off 93 balls, including 13 sixes, to help his side win. He then scored 274 runs in six innings at the Vinoo Mankad Trophy (Under-19 one-day competition), striking at 148. This was followed by a List A debut for Hyderabad in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and later, he was signed up by the Chennai Super Kings.
India full squad: Uday Saharan (c), Arshin Kulkarni, Adarsh Singh, Rudra Mayur Patel, Sachin Dhas, Priyanshu Moliya, Musheer Khan, Aravelly Avanish Rao, Saumy Kumar Pandey, Murugan Abhishek, Innesh Mahajan, Dhanush Gowda, Aaradhya Shukla, Raj Limbani and Naman Tiwari
India’s group and schedule
India are placed in Group A, alongwith Bangladesh, Ireland and the United States. There are three other groups and this will be followed by a Super Six stage in which the teams will be divided into two groups. That is followed by the semi-final on February 6 and 8 and the final on February 11.
India’s group stage matches will be held in Bloemfontein. Their first game against Bangladesh will be held on Saturday after which they face Ireland on January 25. Their final group game against the United States will be on January 28.
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