The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) announced a 15-man squad on Monday for the upcoming U19 T20 World Cup in 2020. Young Priyam Garg will lead the team in the World Cup and he joins the list of Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Unmukt Chand and Prithvi Shaw, who led the team in the U19 World Cup.
India is placed in Group A along with first-time qualifier Japan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The top two teams from this round will progress to the Super League stage. Their campaign will begin with the match against Sri Lanka on January 19, followed by games against Japan and New Zealand on January 21 and January 24 respectively. India will play all their game in Bloemfontein.
The defending champions have won the title four times and it will tough challengers for youngsters this time to defend the title in South Africa. Priyam Garg got his reward after showing his outstanding leadership for the last few months. He led his side to the Asia Cup title and also emerged victorious in the tri-series in England in August this year.
Meanwhile, a lot of youngsters and fresh talents failed to make it to the U19 World Cup squad and it’s quite usual that it affects a player mentally at this young age. And, former Indian captain and the wall of cricket Rahul Dravid took out some time and gave inspirational advice to those youngsters who failed to make it to the squad.
“Don’t lose heart. It’s just one World Cup. It doesn’t define your career. You will go back and play U23, play for your first-class teams, and in one or two years you can easily catch up with some of those boys who have played in the World Cup, Just because you’ve played a World Cup doesn’t mean you will play for India, and just because you haven’t played a World Cup doesn’t mean you won’t,” he said.
India U19 World Cup Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Divyaansh Saxena, Priyam Garg (c), Dhruv Chand Jurel (vc & wk), Shashwat Rawat, Divyansh Joshi, Shubhang Hegde, Ravi Bishnoi, Akash Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Atharva Ankolekar, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Sushant Mishra, Vidyadhar Patil
