Youthful confidence & personal sacrifices help India lift it’s 5th U-19 World Cup!

Last night, a 17 year old Dinesh Bana, India’s wicket keeper hit a “Dhoniesque” six to seal the U-19 World Cup for India ~ the team’s 5th trophy in the 8 finals it has ever played in.

Across the last two games, the young lad has scored 33* off 9 balls and to be able to that one needs oodles of confidence and self belief, something that Bana has plenty off.

He wasn’t the first choice keeper for this squad. During one of the Challenger Trophy games, when his team mate, Nishant Sindhu, with whom he shared the match-winning partnership yesterday, told him that “aaj selectors aane waale hain” (today, the selectors are here to watch us), Bana replied “Tu bas six count karna aaj mere”. (You just wait and count my sixes today)

Bana smashed a 98-ball 170, which included 10 fours and 14 sixes and forced his way into the team.

That’s the sort of mindset this unit played with under the able guidance of Yash Dhull, the captain, who led from the front, and remained unbeaten throughout the tournament. And this, despite the fact that none of these guys were able to gain much experience from domestic cricket in India over the last 2 years.

Raj Bawa, who was the man of the match in the finals for his 5-wicket haul and critical 35 run contribution in the 67 run partnership with Sindhu, ended the tournament with 252 runs at an average of 63 and bagged 9 wickets
at an average of 16.66. His cricketing journey was inspired by another all-rounder southpaw, Yuvraj Singh, who himself had made a huge impact in the maiden U-19 World Cup that India had won in 2000.

Bawa’s father, Sukhwinder Singh Bawa, was a renowned coach himself and had trained Yuvraj in his early days and Raj went onto hone his skills under his father’s tutelage.

Sporting success ran in the family’s blood with his grandfather, Tarlochan Singh Bawa having won independent India’s first Olympic hockey gold in London in 1948 against England ~ what are the odds that 74 years later his grandson would go onto beat the same opponents in cricket to life the U-19 World Cup?:)

There was another impressive 17 year old boy, who hails from a family with sporting heritage ~ Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who set the U-19 world cup campaign on fire when he scored a breathtaking 144 off 120 balls and stitched a 206 run partnership with Ravi Bawa.

His father represented the country in tennis, mother played basketball for India and his younger brother is all set to emulate his father in tennis at the national level. Angkrish moved to Mumbai from Delhi at a tender age of 11 to live with and train under Abhishek Nayar, one of the top all rounders to have played for Mumbai in the recent past.

Moving away from home at an early age to be guided by a better coach and train under good facilities was also what defined the career trajectory of Vicky Ostwal, who ended the tournament with 12 wickets at 13.33, the most from the Indian contingent.

He originally hails from Lonavala but moved to Pune to be coached by Mohan Jadhav, who ensured that he trained hard and played a high volume of good quality age group cricket. It was not just his wicket taking ability that was impressive, but also his ability to control the turning ball and the way he experimented with speed and release angles, above and beyond using flight to his advantage.

Talking about the ability to perfom and deliver when it matters, one has to give it to the skipper Yash Dhull for leading from the front and
emulating what some of his predecessors from Delhi had done in the past ~ he joins Kohli & Unmukt Chand as only the 3rd U-19 World Cup winning captains who have scored a century in the tournament.

His 110 run knock, part of the crucial 204 run partnership with Shaik Rasheed, helped the team stabilize after facing 2 early blows against Australia in the semi-finals. Apart from his batting, he managed to rotate and utilize his bowlers and fielders exceptionally well throughout the tournament.

That the Indian U-19 unit has made it to the finals in 5 of the last 6 editions is a testimony to the strong foundation laid early on in the domestic circuit and credit has to be given the National Cricket Academy for scouting, grooming and nurturing the young lads and kudos to V.V.S. Laxman, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Sairaj Bahutule and the rest of the unit for their guidance,
support and encouragement that helped this team succeed.

Hopefully many of these boys will be picked up in the upcoming IPLs and more importantly, hope a few of them go on to #bleedblue
for the international side, just the way the likes of Dravid, Kaif, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Yuvraj, Irfan Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Raina,
R.P. Singh, Parthiv Patel, Kohli, Jadeja, Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Vihari, Shreyas Iyer, Kuldeep Yadav, Pant, Sundar, Shaw & Gill
have done so in the last 2 decades!

The youth has delivered for the 5th time & now it’s time for the seniors to seek inspiration and follow suit in the upcoming 2 World Cups in the next two years!