The inaugural Under-19 girls’s cricket World Cup begins on Saturday and will likely be performed within the T20 format throughout two South African cities: Benoni and Potchefstroom. One of the favoured sides to elevate the title within the 16-team competitors on January 29 are the India U-19s.

They are positioned in Group D alongside the hosts, Scotland and UAE, and are coming off three victorious assignments within the three months main into the world occasion. Sporting News provides you the lowdown on the squad that might go on to win the maiden girls’s world title for India.

Shafali Verma (captain)

She entered cricket’s big-league as a 15-year-old and have become the youngest to play girls’s T20I cricket and the youngest Indian to make a world half-century. A little bit over three years on, Verma, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist capped 74 occasions throughout codecs with India’s senior crew, is main the nation on the first version of the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup.

An explosive opener and the one participant within the match two senior World Cup appearances beneath her belt, Verma will retain her opening position within the line-up. The 18- year-old heads into the world occasion with scores of 8-ball 10 and an unbeaten 50-ball 43 within the warm-ups in opposition to Australia U-19s and Bangladesh U-19s, respectively.

A useful offspinner, she led India U-19s’ win within the follow match in opposition to Australia U- 19s with a match-winning 3-8 in a 97-run profitable defence. Expect Verma to deploy herself generously within the assault, in what’s prone to be a low-scoring match.

Shweta Sehrawat (vice-captain)

A top-order right-hand batter with a powerful captaincy report, 18-year-old Sehrawat will likely be Verma’s deputy on the World Cup. Last month, she led India U-19s throughout their victorious 5-0 residence sequence in opposition to New Zealand Development Squad in Mumbai.

Her appointment within the position got here on the again of her title-winning marketing campaign with India U-19s A within the quadrangular sequence in Vizag in November that additionally featured India U-19s B, West Indies U-19s and Sri Lanka U-19s. In the ultimate of that match, Sehrawat led from the entrance, stroking an unbeaten 30-ball 43, and completed atop the run chart, averaging practically 55 from 4 innings.

Earlier that month, she was the captain of the India C aspect that completed runners-up within the 2022-23 U-19 Challenger Trophy in Goa. A month prior, she led Delhi U-19s to the semi-finals of the inter-state U-19 T20 Trophy. In the just lately concluded five-match bilateral project in opposition to hosts South Africa U-19s, she took over the captaincy reins from Verma within the official third T20. In Verma’s absence, Sehrawat shepherded the aspect to a 60-run win.

Sehrawat seems as much as India cricketers Virat Kohli, Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues, and has a List 100 to her title.

Her ability to absorb pressure with the bat may maintain India in good stead within the knockouts. She is a robust shout to complete among the many high 5 run-getters within the match.

Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper)

Few girls in Indian cricket have ever introduced as a lot explosivity to an XI, or pleasure to the cricket-watching expertise, as wicketkeeper-batter Ghosh. A strongly constructed participant, Ghosh, 19 could make batting look ridiculously simple on most days.

She is among the two senior internationals, alongside Verma, picked within the squad, and has performed 47 limited-overs matches for India up to now. She was a part of the Indian aspect that completed runners-up on the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia and, throughout its title conflict, grew to become the first-ever concussion substitute in a T20 World Cup last.

Many an exhibit of Ghosh’s big-hitting prowess was on present in final month’s residence sequence in opposition to Australia. In India’s Super-Over win within the second T20I, her 13-ball 26 was essential to the hosts’ victory.

She performs her home cricket for Bengal, made her WBBL debut final season, for the Hobart Hurricanes, and is India’s first-choice wicketkeeper on the U-19 World Cup.

Soumya Tiwari

Much of how the India U-19s fare as a batting unit on the U-19 World Cup will depend on the trendy right-hand top-order batter Tiwari. She has been prolific within the lead-up to the match and is anticipated to open the batting with Verma.

The fourth-highest run-getter within the quadrangular sequence, the place she was promoted to accomplice Sehrawat for title winners India U-19s A within the opening tandem after batting at No. 3 at the beginning of the match. Her highest-score, 65 not-out, in that competitors got here in opposition to the Sri Lanka U-19s.

Against New Zealand Development, she made 52*, 31, 16, 7 and 40, shouldering opening duties with Sehrawat in all however the fourth T20, the place a run out reduce quick her innings at No. 3 to a single-digit rating. She performed in solely three of the 4 accomplished matches in opposition to South Africa U-19s, making 40, 14 and 4*.

An element-time offspinner, Tiwari, who’s now 17, made her Under-23 debut at 13, and broke into the senior Madhya Pradesh aspect earlier this yr. The right-hand batter hails from the central Indian metropolis of Bhopal and took up create at 11 years outdated as a leisure exercise throughout her faculty’s summer season recess.

Her elder sister takes lively curiosity in her profession and her father, Manish, performed cricket on the native divisional degree. She admires how Virat Kohli breaks chases down into smaller elements, regardless of how daunting the goal.

#TeamIndia clinch a complete 5️⃣4️⃣-run win in opposition to SA U19 Women on the Steyn City Ground & take a 1️⃣-0️⃣ lead within the 5️⃣-match #SAvIND T20I sequence 👏🏻👏🏻

4️⃣0️⃣ runs every with the bat from Shweta Sehrawat & Soumya Tiwari 👌🏻

3️⃣ wickets apiece for Shabnam Shakil & Archana Devi 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/5cjRF5TzPP

— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) December 27, 2022

Hurley Gala

Skating was the primary sporting love of the Mumbai-based 16-year-old right-arm pace- bowling allrounder. But an ankle damage across the age of 11 grounded her for months and prompted her to commerce rollerblades for cricket gear. In Ivan Rodrigues, the daddy of Mumbai and India batter Jemimah, she discovered her first cricket coach who taught her the fundamentals of the sport.

Her pure athleticism and core energy impressed many on the native cricketing circuit. A rarity in girls’s cricket in India, she appeared hardwired to bowl tempo. As her understanding of her craft grew, her arsenal expanded. Now, a typical Gala over has all the pieces from a stinging well-directed quick ball to at least one that hurries the batter or beats them for tempo.

With the bat, she props up the center order and possess the smarts to attain fast runs. A right-hander, she is very fast between the wickets and may help shut out an innings along with her large pictures.

In the sequence in opposition to the New Zealand Development aspect, she bagged three-fors within the first two matches of the project. Of the 2 warm-ups India U-19s performed earlier this week, she featured in just one. She is prone to begin for India U-19s on the World Cup and take the ball within the powerplay.

G Trisha

The 17-year-old batting allrounder trains on the similar establishment – St. John’s Cricket Academy — as former India captain Mithali Raj, beneath former India males’s fielding coach, R Sridhar. Deemed a prodigy in her state-cricket circles for a very long time now, Trisha, a resident of the southern Indian metropolis, Secunderabad, has represented Hyderabad throughout all girls’s age-groups and senior sides.

She began enjoying the game as a two-year-old, because of her father GV Rami Reddy, a former U-16 nationwide degree hockey participant who had pledged to himself and his spouse earlier than marriage he would make their youngster, regardless of boy or lady, an India cricketer. He has remained a pivotal determine in her cricketing journey since. In 2013-14, he give up his job as a health coach in his hometown Bhadrachalam and moved to Secunderabad to present Trisha higher coaching alternatives.

Trisha bats and bowls right-handed and has majorly performed in first-drop place in a lot of the sequence main into the U-19 World Cup. Her bowling motion, considerably round- arm, can fox many, her legspin a potent secondary talent to go along with her strong batting approach.

Mannat Kashyap

She has already made heads flip along with her wily makes an attempt at working out non-strikers backing up, a superbly lawful mode of dismissal that (curiously) doesn’t sit properly with many, together with England batter Danni Wyatt.

Mannat doing Mannat issues.

(Mannat Kashyap did it in opposition to Izzy Gaze within the match in opposition to NZ Development crew as properly.)#CricketTwitter#SAU19vINDU19 pic.twitter.com/047VsFkvvU

— Krithika (@krithika0808) December 27, 2022

A left-arm spinner from Punjab, Kashyap, 18, tried to impact such a run-out within the sequence in opposition to New Zealand Development in addition to the South Africa U-19s. She is known to have been impressed by India allrounder Deepti Sharma’s dismissal of England’s Charlie Dean at Lord’s final yr and, earlier than that, her Punjab team-mate Kanika Ahuja‘s successful execution of it in domestic cricket. Don’t be shocked in case you see her have a go at it on the U-19 World Cup.

Something of a disaster bowler for the India U-19s, Kashyap is a street-smart spinner. She varies her tempo with management and has a knack for giving breakthroughs. She was in scorching type within the residence sequence in opposition to New Zealand Development, choosing up 11 wickets, together with a five-for, and is the first-choice left-arm-spin-bowling choice.

Among her position fashions, she counts India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, whom she’s recognized from shut quarters, courtesy her cousin, Noopur Kashyap, a long-time pal of Harmanpreet’s who now manages the India star.

Titas Sadhu

The tall, broad-shouldered right-arm medium pacer from Bengal has adopted within the footsteps of two pace-bowling allrounders from the jap Indian state she considers her inspiration: Rumeli Dhar and Jhulan Goswami. Like them, Sadhu can double up as formidable drive with the bat in any line-up, particularly decrease down the order.

She operates with the brand new ball and generates first rate tempo. Add to that her skill to maneuver the ball within the air and she or he is usually a handful on her day. In the warm-up in opposition to Bangladesh U-19s, she returned 4-0-28-0 and didn’t function within the one in opposition to Australia U-19s.

Sadhu, 18, dabbled in swimming and athletics earlier than attempting out cricket. It was as a 12- year-old she first bowled with a tennis ball, at her father’s cricket academy in Chinsura, a small city in West Bengal. By 13, she had begun coaching in a proper set-up, nevertheless it wasn’t till three years later, she’d have her first brush with state-level home cricket. In the 2020-21 season, Sadhu made her debut in senior for Bengal and broke into the U-19 state crew later within the yr.

Among frontline allrounders, she admires Australia’s Ellyse Perry and England’s Ben Stokes. She loves studying throughout her downtime; Stephen Chbosky’s epistolary novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is one in every of her favorite books.

Sonia Mendhiya

Pluck and spunk are the standout on-field attributes on this 18-year-old batting allrounder from Haryana. Not not like the batter she loves watching most: India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant.

The second participant within the squad from Rohtak district after captain Verma, beneath whom she performs on the Haryana state groups as properly, Mendhiya is the centerpiece of India U- 19s’ center order.

The previous 18 months have ready her properly for batting outdoors the opening place she sometimes slots in at for Haryana. She was prolific with the bat within the 2021-22 Under-19 One Day Trophy in that position, ending because the main run-getter within the match. In the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy the next season, she batted as little as Nos. 7 and eight.

Thanks to Verma, with whom she trains at Shri Ram Narain Cricket Club in Rohtak, Mendhiya, who has herself led the Haryana U-19 aspect, bought a number of alternatives to play primarily as an offspinner final yr. The film paid off for Haryana and the Under-19s subsequently, with Mendhiya having developed into fairly the dependable breakthrough-giver with an astute cricketing thoughts.

She belongs to a financially underprivileged household and misplaced her father younger. Part of her funding for cricket coaching lately has been sponsored by a Delhi-based NGO.

Shabnam MD

The most fearsome amongst India’s four-member tempo contingent, right-armer Shabnam runs in fast, hits the deck exhausting, strikes the ball off the pitch and might dart in a imply yorker, too. The 5ft 10’ fast from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, is just 15 years outdated, but generates good tempo, upwards of 108kph at occasions, and might unnerve batters along with her bouncers.

The eldest of two daughters, she took to cricket at eight years outdated, after watching her father Mohammad Shakeel bowl medium tempo in native leagues. India quicks Jhulan Goswami and Jasprit Bumrah have been her inspiration.

She took three wickets in as many matches in opposition to the New Zealand Development aspect at residence final month and 4 wickets in two matches within the South Africa sequence. She wasn’t picked for the warm-up in opposition to Australia U-19s, however impressed with figures of 3- 1-7-1 throughout her aspect’s three-run defeat in opposition to Bangladesh U-19s within the following follow sport.

Hrishita Basu

If glovework alone was a parameter, pint-sized pocket dynamo Basu, the second wicketkeeper within the squad after Ghosh, would beat the latter so far as making the XI on the U-19 World Cup goes.

Basu, 18, is prone to heat the bench, until the India U-19s think-tank sees advantage in utilizing her as a pure batter, a job she has the instruments to do properly in. Her essential 39-ball 28 at No. 7 in India’s 18-run win over Australia U-19s within the first follow sport, on Monday, lent credence to that declare.

One of the three gamers from Bengal within the U-19 World Cup squad, Basu doesn’t have the prodigious energy that Ghosh injects in her batting to ship sixes hovering into the stands. But what she lacks in muscle or attain, she typically makes up for in creative strokeplay. She trains at former Bengal and IPL allrounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s LRS Bangla Sports Academy in her hometown Howrah.

Her judgment as a keeper, clear assortment, quips and animated celebrations make her fairly the perfect package deal for an up-and-coming wicketkeeper on the worldwide scene. She fashions a lot of her craft on former India captain MS Dhoni’s. When not preserving wicket, Basu makes for a gun fielder too.

Parshavi Chopra

The frontline legspinner in the squad, Chopra, 16, began out as a medium-pacer however switched to bowling wristpin for need of tempo. She hails from Uttar Pradesh and is a scholar on the Yuvraj Singh Centre of Excellence in Greater Noida. 

Her figures within the two warm-ups learn 3-0-14-2 (in opposition to Australia U-19s) and 2-0-10-0 (in opposition to Bangladesh U-19s). Against South Africa, she picked two wickets throughout the 2 matches she performed, for a meagre 24 runs. She struck a mixed 3 times within the two innings she bowled throughout India A’s title triumph on the quandragular sequence.

She hones her craft by watching movies of the legendary Australia legspinner Shane Warne and has enviable management over each flight and tempo. Her lower-order hitting may strengthen her possibilities of enjoying India U-19s’ all three group matches on the U-19 World Cup.

Falak Naz

The opening bowler’s spot within the U-19 World Cup warm-ups modified arms between Shabnam and Naz, who despatched down three overs for 11 runs in opposition to Australia U-19s, however didn’t determine on the wickets’ column. Though shorter than each Sadhu and Shabnam, Naz bowls an attacking line and strikes the ball within the air with management. She has an incisive inswinger that may rattle the opposition.

Her cricketing journey started on the streets of Uttar Pradesh, as the one lady enjoying with boys within the neighbourhood – a standard theme amongst an unlimited demographic of Indian girls cricketers. She went on to play a considerable quantity of college cricket, which, alongside along with her efficiency in native matches, led to her choice within the Uttar Pradesh Under-19 aspect in 2018-19.

Though she couldn’t decide any wickets in the course of the project in opposition to New Zealand Development final month, she took 4 wickets in two matches in opposition to South Africa U- 19s.

Archana Devi

The right-arm offspinner featured in each warm-up matches and has emerged as India’s first-choice slow-bowling choice on the World Cup because of her miserly returns. Her peak is a key issue why she is ready to ask questions of opposition line-ups with variations within the bounce she generates.

A well-built athlete for an 18-year-old, she is adept at each stemming the run move as additionally decide wickets. Her 3 for 15 and three for 14 within the New Zealand Development and the South Africa U-19 sequence respectively have been a mirrored image of that trait.

She provides depth to India’s batting, too, and might chip in with momentum-changing very important fast runs within the decrease order or shut out innings in case of top- or middle-order collapses. In the warm-up in opposition to Australia U-19s, her 17-ball unbeaten pushed the India U-19s nearer to 100.

Like Mendhiya, Archana was a child when she misplaced her father. The benevolence of former state-level and India girls cricketers from Uttar Pradesh, together with former nationwide selector Rita Dey, has been instrumental in giving Archana’s life and profession path.

Sonam Yadav

The 15-year-old is prone to face stiff competitors from Kashyap for the left-arm orthodox spinner’s spot. She had piped Kashyap to the XI within the first warm-up, in opposition to Australia U-19s, forward of the U-19 World Cup, bowling three wicketless overs for 12 earlier than Kashyap changed her within the second follow fixture.

Kashyap’s pinch-hitting skills additionally hand her an edge over Yadav, who began enjoying cricket solely 5 years in the past. The newest amongst an extended listing of left-armer spinners from Uttar Pradesh to signify India in girls’s worldwide cricket, after the likes of Neetu David and Ekta Bisht, to call just a few, Yadav was the main wicket-taker within the 2022- 23 U-19 T20 Challenger Trophy with 4 wickets from seven video games.

Nooshin Al Khadeer (Head coach)

A former India offspinner, Al Khadeer has been an important success in home cricket teaching within the nation over the previous decade. She has been accountable for girls’s state sides like Hyderabad, Chhattisgarh and heavyweights Railways, and was the India Under-19 A head coach that gained the quadrangular sequence in Vizag. She was retained within the position for the sequence in opposition to New Zealand growth which India gained 5-0 and was, unsurprisingly, named the top coach for the U-19 World Cup.

Al Khadeer performed 78 ODIs, two T20Is and 5 Tests between 2002 and 2010, and was a part of the Indian aspect that performed a girls’s World Cup last for the primary time: in South Africa, in 2005. India got here up quick in opposition to eventual winners Australia and completed runners-up. Eighteen years on, Al Khadeer finds herself in the identical nation, albeit in a special capability, aiming to convey residence India’s first world title within the girls’s sport.