U19 World Cup preparations gain momentum

Sri Lanka Under19 cricketers take a selfie prior to their departure to Pakistan yesterday 

•  First bilateral tour by Sri Lanka to Pakistan in 18 years

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka U19 captain Sineth Jayawardene

Pakistan U19 captain Saad Baig

Sri Lanka get another golden opportunity of preparing for the upcoming ICC Under19 Cricket World Cup when they embark on a tour to Pakistan to play the host country in a five-match U19 ODI series and a one-off U19 4-day youth test. All the matches are scheduled to be played at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi.

Sri Lanka Under19 head coach Jehan Mubarak sees the Pakistan tour as one that will expose his players to quality fast bowling. Pakistan is one of the country’s that has the ability to churn out fast bowlers of class and Sri Lanka are likely to come across some of the up and coming bowlers in the six matches they are scheduled to play on the tour.

“An Under19 team hasn’t gone to Pakistan for a long time, it is good to expose those fast bowlers,” said Mubarak on the eve of the team’s departure yesterday. “To be able to play good quality fast bowling, new ball, white ball, moving ball, that experience will help us in the World Cup.”

Sri Lanka’s last bilateral Under-19 tour to Pakistan was in 2005 under the captaincy of Harsha Vithana. Sri Lanka won the U-19 ODI series 2-1. On that side were players like Upul Tharanga, Angelo Mathews, Kaushal Silva, Kosala Kulasekara, Milinda Siriwardana and Chamara Kapugedera who went on to don national caps.

“We have this tour as well as the Asia Cup in Bangladesh both will be tough tours. After those two tours we should be able to adjust to any kind of situation before the World Cup which is in Sri Lanka,” said Mubarak. “In the World Cup we will play different opposition each day and also at different venues, so we have to adjust to the conditions very quickly. It is important to play in conditions that are different to us. Looking beyond the World Cup we should be able to take up whatever challenges that come up.”

Mubarak is of the view that the current Sri Lanka U19 squad has a little bit more exposure than previous groups.

“Pakistan players would have played a lot of first-class cricket, but we are also slowly catching up. We have been playing a lot of practice matches against our Emerging team and some of the boys have played club cricket, while others have actually played first-class cricket. More than previous years this Under19 group has got a bit more exposure to first-class cricket. Malsha Tharupathi for instance got picked for LPL although he didn’t play any matches.”

Missing out on this tour as well is right-arm fast bowler Duvindu Ranatunga, one of the key players for Sri Lanka. “Duvindu missed the series against the West Indies as well. He has a small stress reaction on his back and he is still not recovered. The plan is that we don’t want to push him around, we really want him for the World Cup. We want him to build up his bowling fitness and probably by the Asia Cup in December he will be ready.”

Fielding is one of the areas Sri Lanka will be concentrating hard to improve. “The batting and bowling have been okay, but we want to be match winners on the field with fielding. They are slowly getting there.”

Mubarak said the closeness of the five U19 ODUs will give them an opportunity to rotate some of the players around and see what the bench strength is with different combinations. “By the time the World Cup comes we will know what combinations will work for us.”

Playing Pakistan in their home conditions is not going to be easy. Pakistan will be taking on Sri Lanka after a successful tour to Bangladesh in May this year where they won the one-off U19 4-day youth test by ten wickets, the five-match youth U19 ODIs 4-1 and the one-off T20 by four wickets.

Saad Baig who led Pakistan U19 on that tour has been retained as captain for the Sri Lanka series. He will have the services of eight players who were part of the playing eleven in the only U19 4-day youth test -  Ali Asfand, Amir Hassan, Arafat Minhas, Azan Awais, Mohammad Ibtisam, Mohammad Ismail, Shahzaib Khan and Wahaj Riaz.

“What we saw from the Bangladesh series is that they have a couple of good batsmen in the top order, some good fast bowlers and a good left-arm spinner,” said Mubarak.

Sri Lanka Under19 Squad To Pakistan

Sineth Jayawardena (Captain, Royal College, Colombo), Malsha Tharupathi (Vice-Captain, Richmond College, Galle), Pulindu Perera (Dharmaraja College, Kandy), Vishen Halabage (St. Peter's College, Colombo), Ravishan Nethsara (P. de S. Kularatne Vidyalaya, Ambalangoda), Sarujan Shanmuganathen (St. Benedict's College, Colombo), Dinura Kalupahana (Mahinda College, Galle), Vihas Thevmika (Thurstan College, Colombo), Vishwa Lahiru (Sri Sumangala College, Panadura), Garuka Sanketh (Lyceum International School, Wattala), Ruvishan Perera (Ananda College, Colombo), Kaveesha Piyumal (St. Anthony's College, Katugastota), Hiran Jayasundara (St. Joseph's College, Colombo), Geethika de Silva (St. Anne's College, Kurunegala), Rushanda Gamage (St. Peter's College, Colombo), Manula Kularatne (Trinity College, Kandy).

Standbys: Supun Waduge (Trinity College, Kandy), Dinuru Abeywickramasinghe (St. Servatius' College, Matara), Janith Fernando (Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa), Dinuka Tennakoon (Trinity College, Kandy), Ranuka Malaviarachchi (Royal College, Colombo), Vishwa Rajapaksha (Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa).

TOUR ITINERARY

15-18 October: One-off U19 4-day Youth Test

22 October: 1st U19 Youth One-Day [D]

24 October: 2nd U19 Youth One-Day [D]

27 October: 3rd U19 Youth One-Day [D]

29 October: 4th U19 Youth One-Day [D]

31 October: 5th U19 Youth One-Day [D]

All the matches will be played at the National Bank Stadium, Karachi.