There were a few familiar names in the New Zealand men’s Under-19 squad picked to play the World Cup which begins on January 19 in South Africa.
New Zealand won the ICC East Asia Pacific qualifiers in Darwin in June to qualify for the 15th edition of the Under-19 World Cup and 11 members of that squad have been retained for next month’s assignment.
The 16 teams at the Under-19 World Cup have been broken into pools of four before the Super Six phase of the event ahead of the semi-finals and final in Benoni. New Zealand are grouped with Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan with their opening match in East London on January 21.
“This tournament will be an awesome opportunity for our players to test themselves against the best in the world in their age group, and we hope it will be a great experience,” the U-19 coach Jonny Bassett-Graham said, “You only have to look at the impressive list of players who have represented New Zealand at this tournament to understand it’s importance – from senior Blackcaps like Kane Williamson and Tim Southee through to rising stars like Rachin Ravindra and Adi Ashok.”
New Zealand will miss Cam Paul, who already has experience of playing the Ford Trophy, with the Canterbury allrounder ruled out with a shoulder injury. The squad departs for South Africa on January 11.
Oscar Jackson (capt, bat), Mason Clarke (pace), Sam Clode (wk), Zac Cumming (spin/bat), Rahman Hekmat (spin), Tom Jones (bat), James Nelson (bat), Snehith Reddy (bat/spin), Matt Rowe (pace), Ewald Schreuder (pace), Lachlan Stackpole (bat), Oliver Tewatiya (bat/spin), Alex Thompson (wk), Ryan Tsourgas (pace), Luke Watson (bat)
Reserves: Ben Breitmeyer – (pace), Nick Brown (wk), Henry Christie (bat), Robbie Foulkes (bat), Josh Oliver (pace/bat), Amogh Paranjpe (pace)