Future looks bright for the boys who showed great maturity, high skills to win Under-19 World Cup

Despite little age-group cricket in India for the past two seasons due to Covid-19, the India under-19 team notched up a nine-game unbeaten run, clinching two back-to-back tournaments. "It was an outstanding achievement by the boys. Hats off to them for winning two major tournaments - the Under-19 Asia Cup (in UAE) and then the World Cup in span of a month. Considering that we had hardly two-three months' time to prepare, it's a great achievement," India Under-19 chief selector Sridharan Sharath told TOI on Sunday. The way this bunch conquered an outbreak of Covid-19-six players were infected at one point in the league stage, forcing India to barely find 11 fit players for the games against Ireland and Uganda - is an inspiring tale in itself. Sharath gave credit for keeping the boys motivated in this low phase to batting legend VVS Laxman, who was in the Caribbean in his capacity as the National Cricket Academy head, and the team's coaches - head coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar and bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule, both former India players.

"Credit to VVS Laxman. His presence itself was a tremendous thing. It gives a huge confidence to the boys. You can't substitute such kind of an experience. The coaches and team management must be given a lot of credit, too. Collectively, everybody worked well," summed up Sharath. The heartening aspect of India's performance was that the team appeared strong in all facets of the game.

The batting was led by skipper Yash Dhull and his deputy Shaik Rasheed. If Dhull slammed a superb 82 in the opener and then 110 in the semis against Australia, Rasheed slammed half-centuries in the semis and the final. Keeping calm under pressure, Nishant Sindhu took India home with a fabulous, unbeaten