India Under-19 head coach Rahul Dravid on Monday said that the purpose of exposing the youngsters to bouncy wickets was served during the quadrangular tournament in Thiruvananthapuram.
India Under-19 A, India Under-19 B, South Africa Under-19, and Afghanistan Under-19 were involved in a 50-over tournament, where each team played the other teams once.
All the matches were played between two venues in Thiruvananthapuram - Greenfield International Stadium and St Xavier’s College Ground.
India Under-19 B outclassed India Under-19 A by 72 runs in the final on Monday to win the tournament. On the same day, the South Africans defeated the Afghans by 55 runs in the third-place playoff.
“The quality of the wickets was really good at both the venues. They were challenging for the batsmen. The bounce was exceptional,” said Dravid.
“Our whole idea was to expose the boys to bouncy wickets so that they play not just on flat wickets and then we can see who can stand up and perform when the conditions are challenging.”
The bowlers dominated in the tournament with the 200-run mark crossed only five times.
“We saw almost 45 guys over the course of the four-day and one-day games. We are not really looking to give individual attention at this stage. This was a selection sort of a tournament before we narrow in on the top 30-40 players,” said Dravid.
“It is a stage where we are looking to identify players. It is going to be exciting to work with them leading up to the Under-19 World Cup [in South Africa in 2020],” added the former India captain.
Inputs from PTI