Opinion: Juniors outperformed seniors at U-19 World Cup. Can they lift the trophy?

Very interestingly, Indian sportspersons perform so very well at junior level in comparison to what they do at senior level. In other words, juniors outperform their senior counterparts when they compete with rest of the world.

Tennis is the most glaring example. India has five Grand Slam titles at junior level but at the senior level, an Indian never reached even a Grand Slam semi-final in the past 50 years. Leander Paes has won two singles Grand Slam at junior level but as a senior, his best performance was limited to a just 3rd round of a Grand Slam and his best single’s ranking has been just 73.

This analogy applies to Cricket as well, which was even more strongly manifested when India decimated Pakistan in the semi-final of U-19 World Cup. Indian senior team has defeated Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup multiple times but not by a mammoth margin of 203. This winning margin is insane, to say the least, which Indian seniors can only think of securing against a team like Bermuda and Namibia in ICC World Cup and not against a frontline team like Pakistan. Remember, just seven months back Indian seniors easily lost out to Pakistan in the final of ICC Champions Trophy in England.

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In total, out of 11 completed editions of the U-19 World Cup, India has won three and has been runners-up on two occasions, which certainly is better than the overall performance by their senior counterparts. This is the 12th edition of U-19 World Cup and India is all set for the summit clash. Thus, in 12 edition of U-19 World Cup, India has reached the final 6 times, which is truly incredible and shows how well our boys are pitched against rest of the world at junior level in Cricket.

In comparison, at senior level, India has played in 3 finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup out of total 11 editions. They won twice and ended up as runners-up on one occasion. So strike rate of the junior team in reaching the final of ICC World Cup is almost double than that of the senior team. Isn’t this truly incredible and manifest the difference at two levels?

But even going by the standard of India’s U-19 team, the show of the current team under Prithvi Shaw has been outstanding so far. Look at the margin of victories. Before embarrassing Pakistan by 200 runs in the semi-final, the team defeated formidable Australia, who they will now play in the final, by 100 runs at the group stage. They defeated Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea by 10 wickets in another two group matches. In the quarter-final, Bangladesh went down by 131 runs against them.

All in all, Indian boys have not been challenged by any team so far in a single match during this tournament. Indian seniors, however, never had such unequivocal run at senior level ICC Cricket World Cup, not even in 1983 and 2011 when they eventually lifted the trophy. India lost two group matches in 1983 and one in 2011. In 2007, they couldn’t even reach in the last eight.

The run of this Indian team in this U-19 World Cup is reminiscent of West Indies senior team in 1975 and 1979 and Australia in 2007 in the ICC World Cup. In those cases, Australia and West Indies dominated right from the word go.

If the current form is the criteria then in all probability Indian boys should lift the trophy 4th time on 3rd February 2018 in the 12th edition of the World Cup. Remember, they defeated Australia easily at group match.

Few words for the outperformers like Captain Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Ishan Porel and Nagarkoti. They are likely to make entry at the senior level but as history suggests, challenges are different at the senior stage. Remember Mohd Kaif, the celebrity young cricketer and Indian U-19 captain who played a crucial role in the team’s victory in 1999. Kaif made his Test debut immediately after 1999 U-19 World Cup triumph but he could not replicate his junior level’s flamboyant success at the senior level. But then we have 2008 winning captain Virat Kohli, who has become a world beater at senior level as well.

Only time will tell which of these boys will be able to replicate their junior level success at the big stage, as challenges and pressure are different (for Indians at least) but for the time being let's enjoy the run of our boys and hope they will lift the trophy on 3rd February 2018.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)