“Good luck to our U19 boys who left for South Africa today as part of their preparation for the U19 World Cup that will start from 17th January,” the BCCI said in a social media post with a video of the players at the airport.
The 13th edition of the U-19 World Cup will be played among 16 teams, split into four groups. India are placed in Group A with first-time qualifier Japan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super League stage.
India are the most successful side in the competition having bagged four titles till date, including the last edition in 2018, when the Prithvi-Shaw led team got the better of Australia by eight wickets in the final and remained unbeaten in the tournament.
The team will play three one-day matches against the Proteas U-19 side, followed by a Quadrangular Series featuring South Africa U-19, India U-19, Zimbabwe U-19 and New Zealand U-19 before the real action begins.
Indian squad for U-19 World Cup:
Priyam Garg (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Divyaansh Saxena, Dhruv Chand Jurel (vice-captain & wk), Shashwat Rawat, Divyansh Joshi, Shubhang Hegde, Ravi Bishnoi, Akash Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Atharva Ankolekar, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Sushant Mishra, Vidyadhar Patil.