Baba Aparajith to captain India in 2017 ACC Emerging Teams Cup

What’s the story?

BCCI’s Senior Selection Committee has chosen India’s squad for the 2017 Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) Emerging Teams Cup. Tamil Nadu all-rounder Baba Aparajith will lead the 15-member contingent in the 50-overs tournament. The squad features several promising players such as Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Mayank Dagar and Aswin Crist.

The board’s Junior Selection Committee also honed in on 25 U-19 cricketers who will train at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). Apart from Shaw, Shubham Gill was also included in both squads.

The Background

The 2017 ACC Emerging Teams Cup is an U-23 tournament featuring as many as eight countries. While India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and hosts Bangladesh are allowed to field up to four senior national players over the stipulated age limit, the likes of Afghanistan, UAE, Hong Kong, Nepal can send their full strength national teams.

The heart of the matter

Interestingly, India have opted against naming any senior team player above the age limit and instead will look to utilise the tournament as an opportunity to provide international exposure to their upcoming talents. All matches in this edition will take place in Dhaka between March 15 and 26.

India Squad for ACC Emerging Cup: Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prithvi Shaw, Shubham Gill, Baba Aparajith (c), Hanuma Vihari, Virat Singh, Shivam Chowdhary, Ankush Bains (vc) (wk), Rahul Chahar, Mayank Dagar, Amir Gani, Aswin Crist, Kodiramakrishna Sashikanth, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Kanishk Seth.

NCA Under-19 Camp Probables: Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Himanshu Rana, Mun Jose, Riyan Parag, Sundararaman Radhakrishnan, Priyam Garg, Mayank Rawat, Salman Khan, Harvik Desai, Het Patel, Swapnil Fulpagar, Abhishek Sharma, Anukul Roy, Kamalesh Nagarkoti, Yash Thakur, Shivam Mavi, Ishan Porel, Vivekanand Tiwary, Akash Sen Gupta, Darshan Nalkande, Rahul Chahar, Shiva Singh, Harsh Thaygi and Bhagat Varna.

Parallels from history

India had won the 2013 edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Cup by hammering Pakistan by nine wickets in the final. Aside from Aparajith, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel and Unmukt Chand also featured in that tournament under Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy.

Sportskeeda’s Take

The ACC Emerging Teams Cup offers a platform for the various countries to test the mettle of some of their promising cricketers. With his consistent performances in the domestic circuit over the last few seasons, Aparajith has earned a chance to lead a group of talented players. At 22, the all-rounder already has extensive experience in such competitions and is the right choice to help India defend their title in 2017.