India to lock horns with fierce rivals Bangladesh in opener as ICC announce schedule for 2024 U19 World Cup in South Africa

The 2024 ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup will be hosted by South Africa after being shifted from Sri Lanka. The tournament will begin on January 19 and will be played across five venues with as many as 41 matches to decide the next champion team at the U19 level.

India have won the prestigious tournament a staggering five times and are also the defending champion. They will open their campaign against Bangladesh in what promises to be a fiery encounter as the two teams were in the final the last time South Africa hosted the event. Apart from these two teams, Ireland and USA form Group A.

England, South Africa, and West Indies are all in group B, with the hosts facing the boys from the Caribbean in their tournament opener. This seems to be an unpredictable group with Scotland taking the remaining spot.

Group C will comprise Australia, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Namibia, while Group D has three teams from Asia in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal along with New Zealand. Top three teams from each group will go through to the next stage and then the top four from there will go ahead to play the semifinals which will be hosted in Benoni.

---

South Africa have hosted several ICC events of late

ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley explained how well South Africa have hosted some of the showpiece events recently and how they are confident that it will be hosting another successful tournament.

On this, he stated:

"In the past 12 months we have seen South Africa successfully deliver two milestone events for the sport - the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup last year, and the groundbreaking ICC Women’s T20 World Cup that immediately followed. The relocation of the U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2024 to South Africa allows us the opportunity to build on this momentum and welcome the best young cricketers on the planet to five notable international venues."

India had lost to Bangladesh in the final of the previous U19 World Cup held in South Africa. They will be keen to go one step further and defend their crown to make it six titles.