Rajasthan all-rounder Ashok Meenaria has been named the captain of the Indian team for the under-19 Cricket World Cup to be held in New Zealand from January 15.
Before leaving for New Zealand, the team will travel to South Africa for a preparatory tour, where they will play a few matches.
“My focus will be on defending the title,” Meenaria told the Hindustan Times. “Besides, our coach Sandeep Patil will be a great help to us,” he added.
From the 30 probables announced in November, Haryana’s Mukul Dagar is the only notable name missing from the squad. Manan Sharma, Saurav Netrawalkar, Harmeet Singh and Mayank Agrawal have been selected for their performances in the recent past.
Wicketkeepers Sufiyan Sheikh and Zahid Ali will perform the duty behind the stumps.
However, below par performances by the capital’s age-group teams have left them disappointed as no player has been able to make it to the squad.
SQUAD: A Meenaria (capt), Mandeep (vice-capt), M Agarwal, A Reddy, Harpreet, K.L. Rahul, S Sheikh, Z Ali, H Patel, J Unadkad, S Sharma, S Netrawalkar, Harmeet, M Sharma, GJathar.