Uday Saharan to lead India in Under-19 World Cup in South Africa

The BCCI have announced India’s 15-man squad for the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa starting next month and the group will be led by Punjab’s Uday Saharan, who is currently leading the Indian U19 side in the U19 Asia Cup in UAE. In fact, for the U19 World Cup, the selectors have named the exact same squad as the one for the ongoing U19 Asia Cup.

While left-arm spinner Saumy Kumar Pandey will serve as Uday’s deputy, the squad also includes Musheer Khan, the brother of Sarfaraz Khan. The selectors have decided to pick two wicket-keepers for the mega event in Hyderabad’s Aravelly Avanish Rao and Innesh Mahajan. 

There is no place in the 15-man squad for Saurashtra’s Ansh Gosai, who was a standout performer in the Quadrangular series last month, but the 19-year-old has been named as a traveling reserve. Gosai is one of three traveling reserves, with Mumbai’s Prem Devkar and Uttar Pradesh’s Md. Amaan being the other two.

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The aforementioned 15-man group will also represent India in the tri-series against South Africa and England starting later this month.

The U19 World Cup was originally scheduled to be played in Sri Lanka, but was moved to South Africa owing to the ICC banning Sri Lanka from international cricket due to political interference.

Team India, who are the defending champions, will begin their title defense on the 20th of January, 2024, with a game against Bangladesh in Bloemfontein.

India squad for U19 World Cup & Tri-series

Arshin Kulkarni, Adarsh Singh, Rudra Mayur Patel, Sachin Dhas, Priyanshu Moliya, Musheer Khan, Uday Saharan (C), Aravelly Avanish Rao (WK), Saumy Kumar Pandey (VC), Murugan Abhishek, Innesh Mahajan (WK), Dhanush Gowda, Aaradhya Shukla, Raj Limbani, Naman Tiwari.

Traveling standby players

Prem Devkar, Ansh Gosai, Md. Amaan