How do you rate a team of talented youngsters from a country which eats, sleeps and breathes cricket and considers the game as its religion? With the senior side already basking in glory as ICC World Twenty20 champions, the younger squad wants to continue the winning streak in the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup a feat which they achieved in 2000.
The team has carried on from where it had left off in 2006, when it first beat England in England and then Pakistan in Pakistan. The side undertook a twin tour of New Zealand and Malaysia at the start of 2007 squaring the two-Test series 1-1 and winning the three-match One-Day series 2-1.
They then toured Sri Lanka in July-August 2007, and won a tri-series that involved the hosts and Bangladesh, before comprehensively winning another triangular tournament involving South Africa and Bangladesh in January 2008.
Under the guidance of Dav Whatmore, who coached Sri Lanka to ICC Cricket World Cup glory in 1996 and is the current director of operations at the National Cricket Academy, the side will be strongly fancied to do well at the event.
Virat Kohli, who will captain the side, made 373 runs at an average of 53 in five first-class matches including a top score of 159. He had a strong domestic season, having averaged 72.67 for Delhi in last season's edition of the Cooch Behar Trophy, which is India's premier under-19 domestic competition.
Shreevats Goswami has been in excellent form with the bat, scoring 104 against Bangladesh U/19 and 97 versus South Africa U/19, in the triangular series in Pretoria on the eve of ICC U/19 CWC 2008.
Left-handed batsman Tanmay Srivastava scored 171 runs at an average of 85.50 in Malaysia, and has scored 360 runs from only six games for the senior Uttar Pradesh team in the Ranji Trophy.
Iqbal Abdulla is a left-arm spinner who took 21 wickets for Mumbai in the Cooch Behar Trophy in 2006-07.
Captain Virat Kohli admits that there is huge pressure on the squad. He said: "Hopes are high and the boys have talent. However, all the teams are good and none should be taken lightly. It is a question of which team plays better cricket than the other on the big day."
And with the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif and Piyush Chawla amongst the stars who have gone onto senior honours after playing at this event, the eyes of India will be on Malaysia to see who will be the stars of the future.
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