U19 Asia Cup 2018: Head coach Rahul Dravid to miss the campaign

India U19 and India A team head coach Rahul Dravid will miss the U19 Asia Cup 2018 which will be held in Bangladesh from September 29 to October 7. WV Raman will fill in for Dravid. Raman has already coached the India U19s on several prior occasions when Dravid has been engaged with India A or other commitments.

In 2017, WV Raman was in charge of the U19s during the side’s tour of England when Dravid was occupied with India A commitments. Similarly this year, Dravid had to give the Sri Lanka tour a miss as he was with the India A side in England. Since Dravid will not be available during the next few weeks, Raman will be in charge of the U19 side for the Asian challenge.

India to face Nepal to kick off Asia Cup campaign

As per the schedule, India U19 are set to face Nepal U19 in their opening fixture on Saturday. The team, led by 19-year old Pavan Shah, will then go on to play the UAE on September 30 and Afghanistan on October 2. This will conclude India’s league games, following which the top two teams from Group A and B will face each other in semi-finals. The second semi-final and the final will, however, be played in Sharjah in the UAE.

India last won the U19 Asia Cup in 2016 under the leadership of Abhishek Sharma. Last year, however, was disappointing for India U19 as they crashed out of the Asia Cup after being defeated by Nepal U19 and Bangladesh U19.

The 2018 U19 Asia Cup will be contested amongst 8 teams. Group A features India, UAE, Afghanistan and Nepal, while Group B has Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.

India U19 Squad for Asia Cup: Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Pavan Shah (captain), Anuj Rawat, Yash Rathod, Ayush Badoni, Nehal Wadhera, Siddharth Desai, Harsh Tyagi, Yatin Mangwani, Mohit Jangra, Sameer Choudhary, Rajesh Mohanty

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