India to start U-19 campaign today
Sports Reporter
Title-aspirants India will start their World Cup campaign when they will take on Ireland in the Group-D encounter of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2016 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in Mirpur today.
The match, which will be live telecast by 15 broadcasters across the world, will begin at 9:00am.
Ahead of Ireland, Nepal and New Zealand, India are the most favoured to take the top position in Group D.
With a power-packed batting and bowling line-up three-time champion arrived in Dhaka to recoup the trophy. Theyve three old campaigners including Sarfaraz Khan, one of the countrys brightest young batsmen who turns out for Virat Kohlis Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL, Ricky Bhui and Avesh Khan.
Along with them, some other that will be noticed in Bangladesh is Armaan Jaffer, nephew of former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer, left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed and skipper Ishan Kishan.
Theyve proved their worth and prowess whipping Canada and Pakistan in the pre-tournament warm-up matches, where all they drilled their skills and techniques for the group matches. They held their last moment practice at National Cricket Academy (NCA) ground yesterday.
Coached by legend Rahul Dravid, India features high among top-contenders to bag the trophy, previously won in 2000, 2008 and 2012 but they failed to defend the title two years ago in Dubai. They finished their mission with fifth place, stunning by England in the quarter-finals.
Recollecting the memoirs of the last edition, Sarfaraz insisted that he had an unfinished business at hand in Bangladesh.
Our hopes of defending the title in 2014 were dashed when we lost to England in the quarter-finals. That really hurts and were determined to go all the way this time, said Sarfaraz Khan earlier.
Ireland, who on the other hand finished as runners-up at the ICC Qualifier in October, confirmed as late replacements for Australia when the latter dropped out of the World Cup due to security grounds.
In the other matches, Pakistan will take on Afghanistan at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, New Zealand will play Nepal at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium and Sri Lanka will face Canada at Sylhet District Stadium at 9:00am today.
