Abhishek Sharma, Punjab’s 16-year old left-handed batsman, will lead the India U-19 team in the Asia Cup 2016 that is to be played in Sri Lanka from December 13 to 24. Captaincy to him has totally come as a surprise as looking at his stats in the BCCI U-19 Challenger Trophy, it is difficult to fathom why he has been given a go despite a poor performance there. Abhishek could just score 24 runs in two innings he played in the tournament and scalped four wickets in three games.
Surely Rahul Dravid, the coach of the Under-19 team has been impressed by his technique and his past performances in junior cricket as last year also, we saw Rishabh Pant getting selected in the Under-19 team despite poor performance in the same tournament. Pant, now, is one of the biggest stars in domestic cricket coming fresh from a triple century in Ranji Trophy against Maharashtra.
The team also includes the Mumbai lad Prithvi Shaw, who drew all the attention after Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement by smacking 546 runs on the board in the Rizvi Springfield. Shaw scored 66 runs in two games of the Challengers trophy. Hyderabad batsman Chandan Sahani, who was the highest run-scorer in the challenge trophy has also been selected in the squad. UP’s Sandeep Kumar Tomar will do the wicket-keeping duties during the tournament.
According to latest rule introduced by BCCI, no player is allowed to play two U19 World Cups, if BCCI had not put this condition, then players like Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Armaan Jaffer and many others would have retained their place in the squad.
The tournament will be played on a Round-Robin basis with four venues namely Hambantota, the Galle International Stadium, Uyanwatta Stadium and Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium hosting the tournament. A total of eight teams will be part of the Asia Cup tourney.
Squad: Abhishek Sharma (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Digvijay Birender Rangi, Chandan Sahani, Priyam Garg, Daryl S Ferrario, Sandeep K Tomar (wk), Ayush Jamwal, Rahul Deshraj Chahar, Kamlesh Singh Nagarkoti, Rishabh Bhagat, Simarjeet Singh, Izhaan Ashfaque Sayed, Shiva Singh.