THE inaugural Under 19 Women’s World Cup is just around the corner, with 16 countries set to battle it out in South Africa this month for the chance to be crowned the inaugural champion.

Ahead of the tournament, we here at Rookie Me Central will be previewing all the countries competing at the tournament, looking at their squads, their fixtures and how things might go for them.

In this preview, we take a look at India.

At senior level India really is starting to push to become one of the best countries in the world, particularly in the T20 format, so will be keen to make a similar kind of statement at the upcoming Under 19 World Cup too. With the side picked and the group it is in, the Indians have a real chance to make a decent dent into the competition.

Although the Indian team may only have two players with international experience, those two players have more than most of the rest of the players in the competition.

The Indians will be led at this tournament by Shafali Verma, who over the past few years has become a mainstay of the Indian senior women’s side. She has 75 international appearances to her name, with the majority of those at T20 level (51). Additionally, she has made over 1200 runs at international T20 level, with an average of 24.62.

The other member of the Indian Under 19 World Cup side that has senior international experience is Richa Ghosh. The wicketkeeper does not have as many senior international games to her name (only 47) but over the last few years has slowly been entrenching herself in the senior side.

With the group the Indians are in, finishing top two should not be a challenge. With two minnows in the group in Scotland and the UAE, second is realistically as low as they should finish in the group.

However, with the talent and senior experience in this Indian team, they should be pushing for top spot. A semi-final berth is realistically also within reach for the Indians, and with the form they have shown in the warm up games, perhaps the final is too.

India Squad

Shafali Verma (c), Shweta Sehrawat (vc), Richa Ghosh (wk), G Trisha, Soumya Tiwari, Sonia Mehdiya, Hurley Gala, Hrishita Basu (wk), Sonam Yadav, Mannat Kashyap, Archana Devi, Parshavi Chopra, Titas Sadhu, Falak Naz, Shabnam MD

India Fixture

January 14 – South Africa

January 16 – UAE

January 18 – Scotland