India Senior and Junior Team to Board Same Plane to Dubai

Published - 23 Dec 2017, 01:30 PM | Updated - 22 Aug 2024, 11:47 PM

Senior and junior Indian team to travel together ahead of their respective tours.

Virat Kohli-led senior team and Prithvi Shaw-led India U19 team are all set to share the flight to Dubai before Virat Kohli’s men fly to South Africa, and the juniors board the flight to New Zealand, a report in TOI suggests.

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Gautam Gambhir, India, Virat Kohli, South Africa, — Photo Credit: AFP.

It will probably be the first time in the history when the senior and junior team will be travelling on the same flight. It will be an opportunity for the young boys to interact with Virat Kohli and the team before they reach New Zealand for the all-important World Cup.

The talk with the senior players will be a big boost for the juniors, as a pep talk ahead of the World Cup can bolster their confidence level.

While the senior team will only reach South Africa a week ahead of the start of the international fixtures, the junior boys will land in New Zealand two weeks before the start of the World Cup,

“On the advice of batting great and India U-19 coach Rahul Dravid, the juniors are being sent a fortnight early to acclimatise to the conditions Down Under before the World Cup begins. Before the WC warm-ups, they will play against a few local teams too,” a source told TOI.

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The players of the current U19 team have an experience of playing in England and Sri Lanka, which will come handy when they play in the tournament, as there, just like England, the pacers will have much say. As soon as Indian batsmen assimilate to the conditions there, the better will be for the team.

On the same note, the pacers will test Indian senior players as well on the tour of South Africa. They had a practice game scheduled ahead of the international fixtures, but the team managed decided to cancel the game to organise an intense practice session in a hired ground where a fiery pitch will be laid down.

Four extra pace bowlers will also travel with the team on tour, as a part of fast bowlers contingent.

India’s Test squad –

Virat Kohli (Capt), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah

India U19 squad –

Prithvi Shaw (Captain), Shubham Gill (VC), Manjot Kalra, Himanshu Rana, Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Aryan Juyal, Harvik Desai, Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ishan Porel, Arshdeep Singh, Ankul Roy, Shiva Singh, Pankaj Yadav.

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