UP lad Shukla to lead India U-19

Ravi Kant Shukla of Uttar Pradesh will lead India (Under-19) team against Australia in a five-match one-day series to be played later this month.

The 15-member squad was finalised at a meeting of the Junior Selection Committee of the BCCI in Kolkata on Monday.

BCCI Joint Secretary Gautam Dasgupta, Convenor of the Junior Selection Committee, told reporters that the matches would be played at Mohali (Sept 19 and 21), Dharamsala (Sept 24 and 25) and Delhi (Sept 28).

Team:

Ravi Kant Shukla (UP - Captain), Anirudh Srikkant (TN), Ankit Rawat (Haryana), Mayank Tehlan (Delhi), Ali Murtaza (UP), Rohit Sharma (Mumbai), Arindam Ghosh (Bengal), A G Pradip (AP), Pinal Shah (Baroda - Wicket Keeper), Piyush Chawla (UP), Shabaz Nadim (Jharkhand), Pragyan Ojha (Hyderabad), Y O Mahesh (TN), Anand Rajan (MP) and Abu Nachim Ahmed (Assam).

Venkatesh Prasad has been appointed the Coach, Muthu Kumar as Physio-cum-Trainer and A Prasanna as Video Analyst, of the squad.

Mahesh, Anand Rajan and Nachim Ahmed are pace bowlers, Piyush Chawla the leg spinner and Nadim and Ojha the left-arm spinners.

Dasgupta said the ODI series would be a part of India's preparation for the coming World Cup in Sri Lanka in February.

He said, after the series the Indian team would get further match practice during Afro-Asian under-19 meet to be played in Visakhapatnam in November, following which a 25-member probable squad would be chosen.