Junior Tigers leave for SA ahead of U-19 World Cup today

Agency :
Bangladesh U-19 cricket team will leave for Johannesburg today for the U-19 World Cup, scheduled to be held in South Africa (SA) from January 17 to February 9.

The junior Tigers have been grouped in Pool C alongside Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Scotland and will begin their campaign on January 18 against the Zimbabweans.

The youngsters in red and green will then take on Scotland and Pakistan on January 21 and 24 respectively.

All the Group C matches will be held in Potchefstroom.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a 15-member Under-19 team recently with an aim to win the trophy for the second time.

The dream of regaining the title, which they first won in 2020, was bolstered by Bangladesh’s Asia Cup triumph for the first time last year.

All of the members of the Asia Cup winning squad made it to the Under-19 World Cup team.

Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby who led the side to Asia Cup title unsurprisingly was named captain for the event, which will take place in South Africa from January 19. South Africa was the venue when Akbar Ali led Bangladesh U19 team to trophy in 2020, beating mighty India.

“After winning the trophy in 2020, we hoped to retained it in 2022 too but it eluded us. However we have now strong hopes to regain the title this year,” U19 team selector Hannan Sarkar told the media.

“We won the Asia Cup just a few days ago and it bolstered our hopes further. If we play to our potential, we can beat any team.”
The Bangladesh Under 19 team will take part in a week-long camp and play Zimbabwe in an unofficial match on 11 January.

Bangladesh are slotted in Group A alongside India, Ireland and the USA.

The top two teams of the group will move on to the quarterfinals of this 16-team event.

The Junior Tigers open their campaign with a match against holders India in Bloemfontein on January 20.

Bangladesh U-19 World Cup squad: Ashiqur Rahman Shibli, Jishan Alam, Chowdhury Md Rizwan, Adil Bin Siddik, Mohammad Asrafuzzaman, Ariful Islam, Shihab James, Ahrar Amin (vc), Shiekh Parvez Jibon, Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby (c), Md Rafi Uzzaman Rafi, Rohanat Doullah Borson, Iqbal Hasan Emon, Wasi Siddiquee, Maruf Mridha.
Stand by: Nayeem Ahmed, Md Rizan Hossan, Ashraful Hasan, Tanvir Ahammed, Akanto Sheikh.