The inaugural Under-19 World Cup, also known as the Youth Cricket World Cup, was introduced in 1988. It was marked as a perfect launch pad for young cricketers.
Since then and its formal instigation as the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 1998, several teenage stars have transitioned from age-group cricket to the senior level in national colours on cricket’s biggest platforms.
The Under-19 World Cup has become the audition stage for exceptional future international stars in the next three decades. The multi-nation tournament produced some of the modern era’s finest batters, World-Cup winning captains and epoch-making all-rounders who stamped their names on cricket’s biggest stage.
U-19 World Cup 2008 is a tournament which is close to the hearts of many fans. The reason behind that is many cricket stars of the modern era first announced their arrival in the mega event which happened in Malaysia back in the year 2008. Quite a few players from that U-19 batch graduated to the senior level and made a name for themselves.
Virat Kohli was the captain of the India U-19 side that won the prestigious Cup. In the final, India defeated South Africa to claim the famous win. Kohli finished as the tournament’s third-highest scorer and went on to make his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in the same year. The most prolific batsman among the current cricketers, Kohli’s hunger to succeed and scale new peaks stemmed from his under-19 days. In a glorious decade for Indian cricket, Virat Kohli has emerged at its helm – with over 20,000 international runs and being successful as a captain across all three formats.
The 2023 edition of the ICC World Test Championship Final is underway in London, where Team India is squaring off against the Australian side. Kohli is playing in the WTC final for the second time. However, two other players from the same U-19 batch of 2008 are part of this big game.
Here are the names:
- Steve Smith
Australia’s leading batsman Steve Smith, one of the finest Test players of the current generation, made his U-19 World Cup appearance in 2008. Smith played as a leg-spin bowling all-rounder for Australia in that World Cup. He scored over 100 runs and picked up more than five wickets in that tournament. Having started his career as a bowler who could bat down the order, Smith’s remarkable turnaround saw the Aussie batsman polish his game to become a prolific run-machine in Tests despite his unorthodox technique.
- Ravindra Jadeja
Ravindra Jadeja is another Indian to feature on this list. He was the deputy to Kohli in the U-19 World Cup in Malaysia. In the tournament, Jadeja was the joint-highest wicket-taker with 10 scalps, including two in the final. Now, the left-hander has established himself as one of India’s leading all-rounders across formats.
