Another exciting tournament is on the way. After ending the World Cup 2023, the cricket world is going to experience another World Cup. The ICC Men’s Under-19 World Cup will take place in South Africa in January 2024. Ireland will play in the tournament. Ahead of the tournament, Ireland’s squad for the Under-19 World Cup has been released. Along with that, the head coach talked about the preparation of the youngsters ahead of the tournament.
Ireland’s Squad for U-19 World Cup:
Ireland secured their place in the ICC Men’s Under-19 World Cup in 2024. South Africa is all set to host the tournament. Ahead of the tournament, Ireland released a power-packed squad. Among the 15 players of the squad, 10 players went on a tour of South Africa earlier this year. They have experience playing in the conditions of South Africa. Twelve players of this squad also played against the England U-19 team and defeated them.
The squad is powerful. They will leave for South Africa at the end of this month. Ireland’s Under-19 World Cup is Macdara Cosgrave, Harry Dyer, Daniel Forkin, Kian Hilton, Ryan Hunter, Philippe le Roux (captain), Finn Lutton, Scott Macbeth, Carson McCullough, JohnMcNally, Jordan Neill, Oliver Riley, Gavin Roulston, Matthew Weldon, Reuben Wilson.
The three player has been named as non-traveling reserves. They are Adam Leckey, Hayden Melly, and James West.
Coach’s Corner:
Ireland is prioritizing the tournament as the ICC Men’s World Cup. All the preparations are on point. The Head Coach and Academy and Performance Manager, Peter Johnson talked about the ongoing preparation for the ongoing tournament. He said, “It’s going very well, the guys have been working hard. They are now into a really busy program, initially with strengthening, and now we’ve added in the skills over these last few weeks.
“We’ve also given them some education around nutrition and psychology, so there’s a lot going on. Then there’s obviously the challenge of combining their studies, being organized, and planning their weeks accordingly.”
As the team will fly to South Africa at the end of December, the preparations are going on. When he was asked about the preparation for the upcoming weeks, he said, “ We’ll be heading out to South Africa a week early, leaving on 29 December and then going into the tournament on the 7 January. We’re hoping to play a series against a full member, probably get three games in that space of time, and some training sessions which will stand us in good stead. Then we head into two warm-up games and on to the group games, which will be against the USA, Bangladesh, and India.”
The under-19 stage is a very important phase of a cricketer’s life. From that stage, a player can get global exposure. The coach was asked about this. Johnson said, “We have a really competitive squad. However, being in this system, the training they’ve done and the commitment that everyone has put in is really the start of it. I think Under-19s is really that transition to a high-performance space, and I’m always conscious of that. Players develop at different ages and rates, so it’s not a defining factor for any of these players. We’ve seen plenty of players develop that haven’t come through the Under-19s. But yeah, it’s a brilliant experience. I think the competition simulates senior World Cups incredibly well. The exposure that the players will get, just touring for a long period of time, the exposure to different styles of play from different countries, different conditions, the benefits are endless.”
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