VVS Laxman, who is the head of the National Cricket Academy, has been with the Indian U-19 team in West Indies as a mentor during the World Cup campaign.
Ahead of the blockbuster ICC U-19 Men’s World Cup 2022 semifinal clash against Australia on Wednesday, India skipper Yash Dhull lavished praise on former India batsman VVS Laxman for his inputs and stated his role will play an important role on Wednesday.
India are seeking a record fifth ICC U-19 Men’s World Cup title and if they manage to win against Australia on Wednesday at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, the Boys in Blue will face England in the final.?England beat Afghanistan in the other semifinal on Tuesday. (Live Streaming)
Owner of more than 8000 Test runs for India, Laxman is currently the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA). He has accompanied the Indian team in the Caribbean.
“VVS Laxman has been sharing his experience with us and been talking about the mindset we need to have. His role has been important for us,” Dhull said in the pre-match press conference.
India have been a dominant force in this U-19 World Cup despite being one of the teams heavily attacked by the COVID-19 virus. But that didn’t have any impact on their performances as the Boys in Blue have an all-win record going into the semifinals.
In fact, Laxman was also seen giving throwdowns to the Indian batters at the nets. India enjoy a healthy 5-2 against the Australians in the U-19 World Cup. In fact, India have never lost against Australia in their last five encounters in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Dhull said his team’s warm-up victory over Australia last month won’t have any substantial impact on their forthcoming final-four clash. India thrashed the Aussies by nine wickets in Guyana with the skipper himself scoring an unbeaten half-century.
That day the Indian spinners were in particularly fine form but Dhull believes the differences, in both conditions and the wicket, make Wednesday’s game an incomparable scenario. “The wicket in the warm-up match against Australia was different to the one we will have in the semifinal,” he said.
“The game will be played depending on the pitch conditions. So, we will only know tomorrow how we will bowl and how we can put Australia under pressure. We will look to play with a positive mindset. We will look to set the target as per the condition of the wicket and the situation of the match.”
On the other hand, Australia skipper Cooper Connolly is backing new batting prodigy Teague Wyllie to help fire his team into the ICC U-19 Men’s World Cup 2022 final. Wyllie has been in red-hot form scoring 264 runs in four matches so far and is the fourth-highest run-scorer at the World Cup.
“I said at the start of the tournament,” said Connolly. “That he (Teague Wyllie) was going to be a big run-scorer for us. There is no reason why he can’t continue to do that and I think he can play a big role for us in these last couple of matches,” Connolly said.
The 18-year-old all-rounder also confirmed that facing their toughest opponent of the finals so far wouldn’t stop his team from playing positively. Australia defeated Pakistan to enter the last four.
“There is no change from us in approach. We are just going to try and play some good cricket and hopefully, we can knock off India. They are a very good side and we know that, but I think if we play our best cricket we can beat them,” he added.