Virat Kohli to lead India in U-19 World cup

Mumbai Jan 14 (UNI) Delhi's Virat Kohli was today named captain of the 15-member Indian team for the biennial U-19 World Cup Cricket to be held in Malaysia from February 17 to March 3.

India,who have been place in Group 'B',will open their campaign by taking on Papua New Guinea (PNG) on February 17.The other teams in their group are, West Indies(WI) and South Africa (SA).

An aggressive right-handed batsman and slow-medium bowler, Kohli averaged 72.67 for Delhi in previous season's edition of the Cooch Behar Trophy.

His batting and captaincy were largely instrumental in fashioning India's triumph in a tri-series involving Bangladesh and hosts South Africa, earlier this month.

Ravindra Jadeja, whose all-round skills recently helped Saurashtra qualify for the Super League semi-finals for the first time ever, will be the vice-captain. Dav Whatmore will be the coach of the side.

The players will undergo a preparatory camp in Bangalore from February 1 to 8.The team will leave for Malaysia on February 9 from Mumbai.

The Team: Virat Kohli (Captain),Ravindra Jadeja (Vice Captain)Saurabh Tiwary,Pradeep Sangwan (Dli), Abhinav Mukund, Einstein Napolean (TN),Shreevats Goswami(Ben), Tanmay Srivastav (UP),Manish Pandey (Kar), Taruwar Kohli, Siddarth Kaul, Perry Goyal(Pun),Duvvarapu Sivakumar (AP),Ajitesh Argal (Baroda) Iqbal Abdullah(Mum) Other Groups are: Group A: Pakistan(Pak), Zimbabwe(Zim), Malaysia(Mal), New Zealand (NZ) Group C: Australia (Aus), Sri Lanka(SL), Nepal(Nep), Namabia (Nam) Group D:England(Eng), Bangladesh (Bang), Bermuda(Ber), Ireland (Ire).

Schedule of the tournament: Feb 17: Pak v Mal,Ind v PNG,Eng v Ire,Aus v Nam Feb 18 Zim v NZ, WI v SA,Bang v Ber, SL v Nep Feb 19 Pak v NZ,Ind v SA,Eng v Ber,Aus v Nep Feb 20 Zim v Mal,WI v PNG,Bang v Ire,SL v Nam Feb 21 NZ v Mal,SA v PNG Ber v Ire,Nep v Nam Feb 22 Pak v Zim,Ind v WI,Eng v Bang,Aus v SL Rest day: Feb 23 The top two teams from each of the four groups will qualify for the Super League and will play-off against each other in quarter-finals.

The bottom two teams from each of the four groups will qualify to play in the Plate Championship and will also play-off against each other in quarter finals.

The winners of the Super League quarter-finals will qualify for the Super League semi-finals. The losers of the Super League quarter-finals will progress to the Super League play-offs.

The winners of the Plate Championship quarter-finals will qualify for the Plate Championship semifinals.

The losers of the Plate Championship quarter-finals will progress to the Plate Championship play-offs.

UNI GS SR AB KP1828