In Indian cricket, certain surnames carry plenty of history and on Friday, two of them returned to the national fold when the BCCI named Aaryavir Sehwag and Anvay Dravid in the 15-member India Under-19 squad for the Asia Cup in Muscat. The tournament will be played from November 5 to 14 in Oman. Lakshya Raichandani continues as captain, with Yashbardhan Chauhan as his deputy. India sit in Group A alongside Nepal, Pakistan and the UAE. The top two from each group will advance to the semi-finals.
Aaryavir is the son of the explosive Virender Sehwag and is a top-order batter who has already tasted senior domestic cricket with West Delhi Lions in the Delhi Premier League. He announced himself with a near-triple century of 297 for Delhi against Meghalaya in the 2024 Cooch Behar Trophy. More recently he struck 173 off 143 balls in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy and posted scores of 28, 47 and 34 in the Youth ODIs against Australia. In an earlier interview he said he feels no burden from his father’s name and is simply proud of it.
Anvay Dravid, the 17-year-old wicketkeeper-batter and son of Rahul Dravid, arrives with strong recent form. He smashed 151 off 100 balls for Karnataka against Gujarat in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy and earlier scored a fluent 87 off 67 against Sri Lanka Youth. He also contributed useful runs against Australia and shared the keeping duties with Rajat Baghel.
India name 15-member squad for U19 Asia Cup, retain 13 players from Australia series
Thirteen members of the recent Australia series squad have been retained. The only new faces are Aryan Savsani and Ishan Sood.
India head into the tournament on the back of convincing results, including a 3-0 white-ball series win over Australia U19. The presence of the two star sons will inevitably draw extra attention, especially in the high-stakes clash against Pakistan on November 8. Both players have earned their places through consistent performances.
India U19 Squad – Lakshya Raichandani (capt), Aaryavir Sehwag, V.K. Vineeth, Yashbardhan Chauhan (vice-capt), Kushagra Ojha, Arjun Rajput, Manal Chauhan, Anvay Dravid (wk), Rajat Baghel (wk), V. Yashveer, Aryan Savsani, Mohit Ulva, Kavya Patel, Shavin Vinod and Ishan Sood.
