Sri Lanka Under 19s start Asia Cup campaign against Japan  

Sri Lanka Under 19s will commence their Under 19 Asia Cup campaign against minnows Japan on Saturday, two days after the team land in Dubai. The Youth team left for Dubai yesterday.

The team captained by Royal College batsman Sineth Jayawardena are the favourites alongside Bangladesh to advance to the knockout stage as they face associate teams in Group ‘B’.

Sri Lanka will meet United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh in the other two group matches on Monday and Wednesday respectively.

Defending champions India are drawn in Group ‘A’ where Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal are the other teams. The tournament is set to commence with Group ‘A’ encounters on Friday.

At the last tournament held in 2011, Sri Lanka were the runners up to India after the latter reached a target of 103 runs for the loss of one wicket. Sri Lanka reached the final with a remarkable victory over Pakistan as they defended a total of 147 runs with Traveen Mathew and skipper Dunith Wellalage sharing seven wickets to restrict the opponents to 125 runs.

Sri Lanka have reached the final of this tournament five times. Incidentally, on all five occasions they were beaten by India. India have reached the final eight times and were the champions on all eight occasions. In the 2012 edition India shared the trophy with Pakistan after the final ended in a tie. Afghanistan is the only other country to have tasted trophy success at these championships. They rattled Pakistan for 63 runs in the final at the 2017 edition.

Sri Lanka U19 Squad: Sineth Jayawardena (Captain – Royal College, Colombo), Pulindu Perera (Dharmaraja College, Kandy), Vishen Halambage (St. Peter’s College, Colombo), Ravishan de Silva (P. De S. Kularathna Vidyalaya, Ambalangoda), Sharujan Shanmuganathan (St. Benedict’s College, Colombo), Dinura Kalupahana (Mahinda College, Galle), Malsha Tharupathi (Vice-Captain – Richmond College, Galle), Vihas Thevmika (Thurstan College, Colombo), Vishwa Lahiru (Sri Sumangala College, Panadura), Garuka Sanketh (Lyceum International School, Wattala), Duvindu Ranatunga (Mahanama College, Colombo), Hirun Kapurubandara (St. Joseph’s College, Colombo), Rusanda Gamage (St. Peter’s College, Colombo), Dinuka Tennakoon (Trinity College, Kandy), Ruvishan Perera (Ananda College, Colombo)

Travelling Reserves: Supun Waduge (Trinity College, Kandy), Janith Fernando (Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa)

(RF)