India U-19 captain Yash Dhull won the toss and opted to bat against Australia in the second Super League semifinal of the ICC U-19 World Cup 2022 at Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua on Wednesday.
India made one change to their playing eleven, bringing back Nishant Sindhu who missed the quarterfinal due to a COVID-19 infection.
Sindhu led the four-time champions in the group stage matches against Ireland and Uganda as regular skipper Dhull, his deputy Shaik Rasheed and other members of the team tested positive for the virus.
Sindhu, a left-handed batter and spinner, is one of the match-winners in the Indian team. He has scores of 27, 36 and 15 runs in the group stage matches, and took four wickets against Uganda.
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Australia, three-time champions, too made one change with Chennai-born Nivethan Radhakrishnan coming back into the side.
At the toss, Dhull said that it's a "good wicket to bat on, and if we set a target, we feel we can defend... We just need to play normal cricket."
This is a repeat of 2018 final. India have won the youth world cup in 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2018. The last time India failed to make the last four was in 2014.
The winners will meet England U-19 in the final on Saturday. England defeated Afghanistan by 15 runs (DLS method).
Playing XIs
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Australia U-19: Cooper Connolly (c), Campbell Kellaway, Teague Wyllie, Corey Miller, Lachlan Shaw, Nivethan Radhakrishnan, William Salzmann, Tobias Snell (wk), Jack Sinfield, Tom Whitney, Jack Nisbet.
India U-19: Yash Dhull (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harnoor Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Raj Bawa, Kaushal Tambe, Dinesh Bana (wk), Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Vicky Ostwal, Ravi Kumar.
