Unlike the Pakistan national cricket team, Pakistan U-19 team has had another impressive year in 2019.
The U-19 team played two bilateral series during the year against Sri Lanka and South Africa. In addition to that, the team also participated in the 8-nation ACC U-19 Asia Cup, which was held in Sri Lanka.
The 5-match series against Sri Lanka was won by Pakistan 3-2. The team was led by Rohail Nazir and his captaincy was heavily praised because of crucial decisions he made throughout the series.
After the series win against Sri Lanka, the Pakistan ‘Shaheens’ whitewash over South Africa in a seven-match series held from June till July.
In the ACC U-19 Asia Cup, Pakistan were unfortunately knocked out in the quarter-finals. However, reviewing the year, Rohail Nazir said:
Despite winning the series against Sri Lanka, we had some issues in the batting department. In our series against South Africa we rectified those mistakes which helped us to clean sweep South Africa in the 50-over series.
The series against South Africa was important for us as the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup is scheduled to take place there and it helped us understand the conditions before the mega event.
He further stated:
The players had a poor start in the ACC U19 Asia Cup 2019 where the team lost to Afghanistan in the opening match, and the morale of the players went down. Despite winning against Kuwait, the team couldn’t qualify for the semi-final stage of the tournament.
Rohail praised the importance of having someone like Ijaz Ahmed, an experienced candidate, alongside.
Under head-coach Ijaz Ahmed, the team is in a position to give positive results, as Haider Ali and I had benefited a lot under his guidance while playing in the ACC Emerging Asia Cup.
Generally, Rohail claimed that the year proved to be a successful one for the Pakistan U-19 team.
I am happy with my performance, where I performed consistently. Similarly Haider Ali, Naseem Shah and other players too have contributed in Pakistan U19 win in the year 2019.
