Uttar Pradesh batsman Priyam Garg will lead defending champions India in next year's Under-19 ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s junior selection committee, which met in Mumbai on Sunday, picked a 15-mamber squad for the January 17-February 9 tournament.
The 19-year-old Garg, a right-hand top-order batsman, has a first-class double hundred and a List A century to his name. He was a part of the India C team that finished runner-up in the Deodhar Trophy. He scored 74 in the final against India B last month.
In the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season, he was the second-highest run-scorer for Uttar Pradesh, with a tally of 814, at an average of 67.83, including two hundreds and a career-best 206.
Another player to watch out for in the tournament is 17-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal. He became the youngest to hit a List A double-century during the Vijay Hazare Trophy earlier this year for Mumbai. He averaged 112.80, with three hundreds and a fifty during the season.
The 13th edition of the Under-19 World Cup will be played between 16 teams, split into four groups.
India is 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 is the most successful team in the tournament, having won four titles till date, including the last edition in 2018, when they beat Australia by eight wickets in the final and remained unbeaten in the tournament.
Ahead of the World Cup, the India Under-19 team will travel to South Africa for three One-day matches against the Proteas Under-19 side, followed by a Quadrangular Series featuring South Africa U-19, India U-19, Zimbabwe U-19 and New Zealand U-19.
Hyderabad's CTL Rakshan will be the additional player in the squad for the South Africa tour and the Quadrangular Series.
India squad for Under-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.
India-19 squad for the tour of South Africa: 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, CTL Rakshan.
