Robin Singh

Mumbai, Jan. 31 (PTI): India’s under-19 cricket coach Robin Singh on Saturday expressed confidence that his team would return with the ICC under-19 World Cup from Bangladesh, being held from February 15 to March 5.

Singh said the Ambati Rayudu-led team was one of the favourites. “I think South Africa, England and Australia too might be having strong teams and you can not rule out the Asian teams like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who will be playing on similar pitches and conditions, found in their own back yard but yes I can say that we are one of the favourites as we are the Asian champions,” the former allrounder, who declared his retirement from international cricket recently, said.

Regarding his strategy Singh, said: “We would like to take one match at a time and I am confident that my boys will do well as they are a bunch of talented youngsters who all stand a very good chance of making it big in the near future”.

“In fact I am so confident of their abilities that I would like to tell their respective associations to keep persisting with them in various domestic tournaments, including Ranji Trophy, even if they fail in the early part of their career.”

Singh also said that due to more exposure the younger generation understood the game much better.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) joint secretary, Professor Ratnakar Shetty said that the under-19 team had a 15-day camp in Bangalore before taking a one-week rest.

THE SQUAD

Ambati Rayudu (capt), Dinesh Kartik, Robin Uttappa, Praveen Gupta, Suresh Raina, Gaurav Dhiman, V.R. V. Singh, Shikar Mohinder Pal, B. Abhishek Sharma, Sunny Satpal Singh, Nikhil Rajendra Rathod, Prafull Waghela, Fazal Faiz Yakub, Rudra Pratap Singh. Coach: Robin Singh. Manager: Ram Babu Gupta. Physio: Dr Kinjal Suratwala.

Vengsarkar consultant

Former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar will accompany the under-19 team to Dhaka as a consultant. He was also the consultant during the last junior World Cup when Balwinder Singh Sandhu was the coach.