The Indian under-19 cricket team created history recently when they outplayed Australia in the finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup held at the Bay Oval and became the only team to win the world title for a record four times.
That they did by a huge margin of eight wickets indicates the extent of their domination over a team like Australia, who themselves have won the title three times.
However, this World Cup was India’s from the time they thrashed the three-times world champion Australia by a whopping margin of 100 runs in the very first game of the tournament. India remained unbeaten through the tournament and dominated the game in all the departments.
Here is the proof.
Batsman Shubman Gill scored a mind-boggling 372 runs at an average of 124 runs per innings to be declared man of the series.
Opener Manjot Kalra, fell short of century by a few runs in the opener against Australia, but kept a cool head to carry his bat in the final, scoring 101 runs in 102 balls.
In what was clearly the match-winning knock, opener Manjot Kalra scored as many as eight boundaries and lofted three huge sixers.
During the tournament of course, captain Prithvi Shaw scored consistently at an average of 77 plus runs to further enhance his reputation as a potential India star.
Shaw it must be mentioned has already equalled Tendulkar’s record of scoring a century on debut for Mumbai in both the Ranji and Duleep trophy tournaments.
In the bowling department, the pace battery of Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi and Ishan Porel took as many as 24 wickets between themselves and made opponents very nervous with consistent bowling speeds of 140kms per hour.
The Indian spinners too came to the party, when Anukul Roy, Shiva Singh and Abhishek Sharma grabbed twenty-seven wickets between themselves.
However, it must be remembered that this India Under-19 triumph has been achieved after a lot of hard work. The BCCI’s consistent organising of age-group tournaments has seen the nurturing of young talent.
Secondly, the existence of an efficient, National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru has been the key to grooming these talented youngsters into match winning champions.
And last but not the least, is the investment in a top-class support staff headed, by no less than former Indian cricketer and captain, widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket Rahul Dravid as head coach.
The significance of the support staff cannot be underestimated.
Ishant Porel the fast bowler injured himself in the very first game of the tournament and it needed the expertise of Anand Date, the team’s strength and conditioning trainer to put him back on the road for future games, including the all-important final.
Ishant Porel in an interview to espncricinfo.com (which has a thriving user community and reaches over 20 million users every month) emphasised the importance of people like strength and conditioning trainer Anand Date in the support staff and acknowledged his role in his growth as a cricketer at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
Paras Mhambrey, former India international, too has played a significant role in shaping the fortunes of the Indian pace bowlers.
As several media reports have indicated, Paras Mhambrey it was, who kept guiding the young Indian bowlers to keep their heads and bowl sensibly. The results were there for all to see.
Some of these under-nineteen cricketers have already been offered very lucrative contracts in the upcoming Indian Premier League tournament and are on their way to greater glory.
However, not all will make it
big. But almost all of them must
aspire to play first class cricket for their state teams and aim for the India cap.
As former Indian cricketer and captain Rahul Dravid told media persons on the team’s return to India, “The challenges and the hard work start from here.
“The hard work begins for them and for us as well, as to how we manage these boys over the next few years. If they go on to have successful first-class careers, then from there on it becomes a stepping stone for international cricket.”
However, whichever way you look at it, Indian cricket fans can relish this World Cup victory and rest assured that Indian cricket is indeed in safe hands.
