Indian colts look to bank on its quality and depth

Playing a 'World Cup' on these tricky Caribbean pitches can be a testing assignment. India's senior men's team found out in 2007 and 2010. Comparatively, the women did well in the 2018 ICC World T20 and managed to reach the semi-final. Now the Under-19 boys are all set to take up this challenge as they face the South African colts at the Providence Stadium in Georgetown, Guyana in their inaugural match of this edition of ICC Men's Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2022.

The Indian contingent has been stationed in Georgetown for more than a week now. After a successful campaign in the Asia Cup, they flew here from Dubai via Amsterdam and Port of Spain. The boys have got time to acclimatise and they are going into this competition with two comprehensive triumphs against West Indies and Australia in the warm-up games.

The confidence in the Indian camp was evident during their pre-match training session at the historic Georgetown Cricket Club ground on Friday (January 14). They had a full-fledged two-and-a-half-hour session in the first half of the day in which Yash Dhull and his boys sweated it out in hot and humid conditions. 

The practice pitches had a little bit of uneven bounce hence the fast bowlers — Rajvardhan Hangargekar and Ravi Kumar — had a brief outing. They bowled for the initial 20-odd minutes and then the rest of the bowling responsibilities were looked after by the spinners. 

And this team has a variety of slow bowling options. The bowling coach, ex-India leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule had an extensive session with these young bowlers whereas Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the head coach had one-to-one chats with his main batters like Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harnoor Singh, Shaik Rasheed and with skipper Dhull.   

This particular side banks heavily on its depth in the batting line-up and there was a glimpse of it when all-rounders like Nishant Sindhu and Raj Bawa showcased some of their power-hitting skills towards the end of the session. 

India played their two practice games at the Providence Stadium in which the pitch was "batting friendly," as mentioned by Dhull in his pre-match presser. However, in the tournament opener between West Indies and Australia, the wicket seemed two-paced, especially in the first session. The Aussie spinners — Nivethan Radhakrishnan and skipper Cooper Connolly who is just a part-timer — got six wickets in between them to bowl the hosts out for a below-par 169. 

Hence, considering the conditions the Indian think-tank is likely to retain their three-pacer and three-spinner combination, which we saw in the Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka. Also, with South Africa being a non-subcontinental side, their batters are likely to have a lesser exposure against quality spin. 

Off-break bowler Kaushal Tambe along with left-arm orthodox Vicky Ostwal are the front-line spinners in the side. Along with them Sindhu, who scored 78 in one of the practice games, will come into the scheme of things with his left-arm spin.

Meanwhile, despite Dinesh Bana featuring in both the practice matches, Aaradhya Yadav is going to be the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter for India. At least it seemed from his preparations. 

Overall, prior to their first game, India looks like a settled unit and if these youngsters continue to play according to their potential and most importantly do not suffer from bio-bubble fatigue (yes, they are in a bubble for a long period now), this batch has all the potential to carry forward their country's glorious legacy in the ICC Men's Under-19 Cricket World Cups. 

Possible India XI vs South Africa:

 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harnoor Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Yash Dhull (c), Aaradhya Yadav (wk), Nishant Sindhu, Raj Bawa, Kaushal Tambe, Vicky Ostwal, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravi Kumar