Australia announce U19 squad, Jason Sangha to lead the side

Jason Sangha who scored a brilliant hundred for Cricket Australia XI against England XI has been named as the leader of the 15-man squad announced by Cricket Australia for the U19 World Cup which gets underway in January 2018 in New Zealand. The promising all-rounder became the youngest to have reached three figures for Australia when he hit that ton against the bowling unit which had the likes of England star Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes.

Sons in the action

Will Sutherland, son of Cricket Australia boss is named as the deputy to the 18-year-old Sangha. Sutherland had a great game when picked up four-fer for Victoria during the JLT One-Day Cup game earlier this season. He had earlier chosen cricket over AFL as a career in the month of June. Another son who is in the squad is allrounder Austin Waugh, son of World-Cup winning skipper legendary Steve Waugh.

Former Australia quick ball bowler Ryan Harris has been named the coach of the team that plays their first game in the World Cup against India on January 14. They’re in the group B which also has India, Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea. Former left-handed batter, 40-year-old Chris Rogers will assist Harris during the world cup.

Exciting mix of players

National Talent Manager Greg Chappell called the group a very exciting squad. “This is a very exciting squad and there is some exceptional talent within this group,” said Chappell.

According to Chappell, bowling unit has a good pace-spin combination as a number of their batters can bowl if the need be. “We’re quite strong with our pace bowling, we have good depth with our spin bowling, and a number of our top-order batsmen all offer viable bowling options, which gives us a lot of flexibility when it comes to team selection,” said the former Australia legend.

Australia last won the U19 World Cup in 2010 under the captaincy of Mitchell Marsh whose team had the likes of Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood. The junior World Cup starts on 13th of January where the hosts New Zealand will take on the 2016 season champion West Indies.

Australia U19 Squad

Jason Sangha (C), Will Sutherland (vc), Xavier Bartlett, Max Bryant, Jack Edwards, Zak Evans, Jarrod Freeman, Ryan Hadley, Baxter Holt, Nathan McSweeney, Jonathan Merlo, Jason Ralston, Param Uppal, Austin Waugh, Lloyd Pope