Colts set off on African Safari

Players of India U-19 team are all geared for the challenge of playing on seaming wickets on their tour of South Africa. The boys won’t like to take any pressure on themselves and just enjoy the game as much as they can.

Skipper Virat Kohli is aware that it will be a tough tour. “The conditions will favour fast bowlers, but we are ready for the challenge,” he said on the eve of the team’s departure to South Africa, where they will play a triangular series involving Bangladesh U-19 and the host team, followed by two three-day games.

With the India U-19 World Cup near, Kohli feels that it can be a good preparation. “It will be a good platform for us to prepare for the forthcoming World Cup in Malaysia,” said Kohli.

Coach WV Raman echoed Kohli’s views, saying that they need to adapt conditions quickly. “The players have been performing well of late and are in good form. They will now need to adapt to the conditions,” said Raman.

The team did not have any preparatory camp. “No I don’t think it will affect our chances. We have played together before so we know our strengths and weaknesses. Also, the boys have been playing regularly in the domestic or local circuit. Hence I don’t think so we will have any problem,” he said.

Team: Virat Kohli, (captain) P Sangwan (Delhi) Ravinder Jadeja (vice captain, Saurashtra), Abhinav Mukund (TN), Tanmey Srivastava (UP) Saurabh Tiwari (Jharkhand), K P Appanna, (Karnataka), Manish Pandey (Karnataka) T Kohli, Amanpreet Singh (Punjab), Sreevats Goswami (Bengal) Siva Kumar Duvarapu, G V S Parsad (AP), Mohammad Arif (Rajasthan), Iqbal Abdullah (Mumbai), H Khadiwale (Maharashtra).