England Under-19 World Cup squad named

By Paul Bolton, County News Correspondent

Six Midlands youngsters have been included in the England Under-19 squad for the ICC Under 19 World Cup which will be played in Australia next month.

Warwickshire seamer Shozair Ali, Nottinghamshire all-rounder Sam Wood and Worcestershire all-rounder Aneesh Kapil, who have already played international youth cricket for England, are in the 15-man squad along with Northamptonshire batsman Ben Duckett, Leicestershire off-spinner Ben Collins and Derbyshire slow left-armer Tom Knight.

Wood, Duckett and Collins prepared for the Youth World Cup by helping England Under-19s win the Second XI T20 competition in Arundel last weekend.

England will be based in Townville for their group matches in the World Cup and will begin their campaign against Australia on August 11. Their other group matches will be against Ireland and Nepal.

“The squad contains a great blend of players with first-class experience and those with less experience,” said Tim Boon, the England Development Programme head coach.

“We’ve got some great games to look forward to against top class opposition at such a prestigious tournament. We’re looking to give them an opportunity to impress at this level and hope we compete strongly throughout the competition.”

The young England side will be captained by Adam Ball, the Kent all-rounder, with Essex wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes as his vice-captain. Ball said: "It is a real honour to be selected, and to also captain the squad. The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup will be challenging, but we are ready and looking toward to getting out there."

Ball, who is taking a Sports Science degree at the University of Kent in Canterbury as part of a joint scholarship scheme with the Kent Academy, is joined in the Under-19 party by his Kent team-mate Daniel Bell-Drummond.

A product of the Millfield School in Taunton and another of Kent’s Academy graduates, Bell-Drummond has enjoyed a rich run of batting form for the county Second XI and would probably have forced his way into first team contention for the second half of Kent’s County Championship campaign but for this World Cup call-up.

The England Development Programme’s head selector David Graveney said: “The squad we have put together contains strength in depth and some exciting young talent which we look forward to seeing perform on the world stage in Australia.
 
“It was difficult to reduce the squad from our original 30 names to just 15, but we feel we have a good mix of batting and bowling with strong names in reserve in case of any injuries.”

England U-19 squad: Adam Ball (captain, Kent), Ben Foakes (vice captain, Essex), Shozair Ali (Warwickshire), Daniel Bell-Drummond (Kent), Ben Collins (Leicestershire), Alex Davies (Lancashire), Ben Duckett (Northamptonshire), Brett Hutton (Nottinghamshire), Aneesh Kapil (Worcestershire), Tom Knight (Derbyshire), Craig Overton (Somerset), Jamie Overton (Somerset), Reece Topley (Essex), Kishan Velani (Essex), Sam Wood (Nottinghamshire).

 


Date: 06/07/2012 12:10:14 by Paul Bolton
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