Part 1: The Under-19 World Cup has all the time had a sure appeal, of bands of boys hitherto unknown even of their cities or states, forgotten nations, coming collectively to vie for a world title so early of their lives, as India have simply performed for the fifth time.
Over the years, egged on by large broadcast eyeballs and greater advertising and marketing budgets chasing them, the event has additionally come to amass immense hype. For the 2018 version, the broadcaster ran a marketing campaign titled ‘Greatness Begins Here’. But does greatness actually start on the U-19 stage?
The Indian Express regarded on the senior careers of the 178 gamers who’ve been a part of India’s junior World Cup groups, excluding the present version. Fifty-one of them have gone on to play for India. Even if we omit a few latest squads to permit for kids nonetheless discovering their manner in senior home cricket, it nonetheless means nearly two-thirds of junior India cricketers haven’t made it to the senior nationwide crew.
Even among the many 51 who’ve graduated efficiently to seniority, 26 — greater than half — have performed 25 or fewer white-ball worldwide video games (ODIs and T20Is mixed).
The image is starker on the subject of Test cricket. Nearly three-fourths of those 51 double internationals – 37 – have performed 25 or fewer Test matches. In truth, 16 have not performed a single Test.
The absolute numbers will, in fact, inch up as among the youthful U-19 World Cuppers, equivalent to Shubman Gill, will possible grow to be worldwide regulars in future. But each two years, a recent batch of 15 will get added to the denominator as nicely, and because the information present, an awesome majority fail to make the transition.
If greatness could be decided by the burden of numbers, solely eight gamers – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh – have gone on to play 200-plus white-ball worldwide video games. And a mere 4 have both achieved or are near the last word 100-Test mark – Sehwag, Harbhajan, Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. It can safely be concluded that barring the actually distinctive participant, greatness doesn’t start on the U-19 World Cup.
Is junior stardom a marker of at the very least a secure home profession? Again, it seems that grownup life is tough. Of the 127 junior World Cuppers who haven’t represented India senior, 71 haven’t managed 50-plus home white-ball video games. First-class cricket is more durable, and 68 are wanting breaching even 25 red-ball video games.
Just three out of the 127 – Unmukt Chand, Iqbal Abdullah and Shreevats Goswami – have turned out in additional than or near 200 home white-ball matches. And only one, Gujarat’s Niraj Patel, has managed to achieve three figures in first-class cricket.
Yash Dhull, captain of the category of 2022, was requested about there being an Unmukt Chand for a Virat Kohli. Leave alone a once-in-a-generation nice like Kohli, Dhull and his bunch could have achieved one thing if, a decade from now, they will have pulled off a Chand. For now, as chief junior selector S Sharath advised this paper, “These boys will sail in the ocean from the lake.”
,
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
