4 Indian U-19 World Cup-winning captains – Where are they now?
India has never had a dearth of cricketing talent even at the junior level, which is the reason why they have won the U-19 World Cup four times so far -- the most by any team in the history of the tournament. They have announced a very strong squad for the next edition, going to kick off in South Africa on 17th January 2020, as well.
The captains of these Indian U-19 teams over the years all played a key role in their team winning the trophy. The charge of the team this time around is in the hands of Priyam Garg.
Garg, who comes from a humble family background, has played age-group cricket in his state (Uttar Pradesh) and has come through the ranks with outstanding performances at each level of junior cricket. The 19-year-old is a right-handed batsman and a medium-pace bowler and has already played 12 first-class matches (in which he averages 66.07 with the bat).
While the expectations are very high from the current India U-19 captain, let’s talk about the four former World Cup-winning colts leaders and what they are up to these days:
#4 Prithvi Shaw (2018)
Prithvi Shaw was the captain of the Indian U-19 team that won the title for a record fourth time in New Zealand in 2018. Shaw was among the top ten in the list of the leading run-scorers in the tournament as he scored 261 runs in six games at an average of 65.25.
It didn’t take Shaw long to earn a senior team call-up afterward as he was named in the Indian squad for the Test series against West Indies in October 2018. He made his Test debut straightaway and justified his selection with a hundred in his very first innings.
With a total of 237 in the series, Shaw almost cemented his place as the first-choice opener in the Indian Test team and was all set to open the batting for the country in the next series against Australia. But, an injury in the warm-up game ruled him out for a few weeks before he was handed an 8-month ban for doping violations.
Shaw had to remain away from the game for a large part of 2019 due to the injury and the ban, but he recently returned to action for his domestic side Mumbai and performed brilliantly at the top of the order in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The 20-year old is currently playing for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy.