Mumbai’s teenage sensation has been named as the captain of the India U-19 squad for the 2018 cricket World Cup that will be held in New Zealand from January 18. This tournament is considered to be the platform or launching pad for budding cricketers. Players like AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja and Steve Smith are all products of the U-19 circuit.
The Indian squad for New Zealand was announced on December 3. Punjab born Shubman Gill will be Prithvi Shaw’s deputy. With coach Rahul Dravid making sure that a player is entitled to take part in a maximum of one Under-19 World Cup, the likes of Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan, Anmolpreet Singh etc. were not considered for selection. Washington Sundar has already been a part of the last edition of this tournament. Sundar is currently an integral part of the Rising Pune Supergiant franchise in the Indian Premier League.
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India, who finished as the runners-up in 2016, are placed alongside Zimbabwe, PNG and Australia in Group B. Prithvi’s boys start their campaign against Australia on January 14 followed by PNG and Zimbabwe on January 16 and January 19 respectively. All the three league matches featuring India will take place at the Bay Oval in Tauranga.
Comparisons have already started in the social space, where some feel Prithvi Shaw is the next Virat Kohli.
So #Kohli is the man who successfully lead the u19 indian team and became the captain of mainstream #Meninblue … And now #Prithvishaw is getting huge runs u19 and captaining the side in upcoming world cup…
Will he become the next #kohli ?
The next #runmachine for future?— Murali RamaRaju _ (@Murali_tweetz) December 3, 2017
Squad: Prithvi Shaw (captain), Shubman Gill, Himanshu Rana, Abhishek Sharma, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ishan Porel, Shivam Mavi, Riyan Parag, Aryan Juyal, Harvik Desai (WK), Arshdeep Singh, Shiva Singh, Pankaj Yadav, Anukul Roy and Manjot Kalra.
