The Australian ODI team of the early 2000s was a ruthless juggernaut that steamrolled oppositions and won World Cups for fun. In those days, it used to feel like the World Cup was a tournament where the rest of the cricketing nations competed only to lose to the Aussies in the summit clash. Australia swept both 2003 and 2007 World Cups with never before seen dominance; they didn’t drop a single game across two events.
As an Indian fan, I’m sure we all had a love-hate relationship with that Aussie team. We used to hate them for giving us heartbreaks like the 2003 final but deep down admired their ruthlessness and hoped that one day we would also have a side that was as relentless and consistent as them. On Tuesday, when Yash Dhull and his team walked off the park after steamrolling Australia in another U-19 World Cup final, my mind wandered back to those days of Aussie dominance and it made me think about our own dominance in Youth Cricket, especially WC’s.
Now, this is not an attempt to compare this U-19 team or the previous batches with that Australian team. The case in point is the fact that Indian U19s in World Cups have been a ruthless juggernaut in the past two decades and especially in the last 13 years and it is something that deserves to be celebrated and cherished a lot more than we do.
India will play their 4th consecutive final against England on February 05. This will be their 8th final, which is the most in the history of the tournament. They have won the most titles (4- 2000, 08, 12, 18) and have lost just two games across the last four editions: the final of 2016 and 2020 event where they lost to West Indies and Bangladesh respectively.
India have played a total of 88 games in U19 WC and their W/L ratio of 3.578 (68 wins and 19 defeats) is the best among all teams. The level of their dominance can be gauged from the fact that the second most successful team, Australia have a W/L ratio of 2.857 (60 wins in 84 games).
Speaking of Australia, they have won the tournament three times and have largely been consistent over the years but their record against India has been incredibly poor. Since beating India in 1998, Australia have lost six consecutive WC games to the Boys in Blue, five of which have come in knockout fixtures.
In fact, in the last 6 editions, India has knocked Australia out four times in as many meetings. Seeing an Indian side dominate the Aussies in a world event, especially in knockouts gives a different kind of high given the kind of pain that their senior men and women teams’ have inflicted on Indian fans, be it in cricket or Hockey.
Now there are many reasons why India have been such a ruthless force in Youth Cricket. Robust infrastructure at the grassroot level, intense competition at various age group levels leading up to U-19, exposure to high quality cricket courtesy of unofficial foreign tours are just some of the reasons to begin with.
But most of those caveats do not apply to this batch of cricketers. Remember this tournament is being played amid the Covid era and in the past two years, the current batch barely got any chance to play any first-class cricket or list-A games in obscure conditions. Add to the fact that key players of their side including skipper Yash got infected with Covid midway through the tournament, to perform like they have speaks volumes about their mental strength and of course their skills.
India have lost two of their last 3 U19 WC’s, and since 2013, their men’s team have lost three semi-finals and as many finals in the last 7 ICC events to go along with two finals and a semi-final in Women WC’s since 2017. It will be fitting if this batch breaks the jinx this weekend and extends India’s dominance in the tournament.