Australia Team Profile

 

Led by Victoria's Michael Hill, Australia's U/19 side will head to Malaysia, hopeful of replicating the success of their senior side in recent ICC competitions and becoming the first team to win the tournament three times.

Having crashed out of the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup 2006 at the semi-final stage, where they lost by 163 runs to eventual winners Pakistan, Hill along with Phillip Hughes, Kumar Sarna and Jeremy Smith will all have to perform to the best of their ability if Australia is to be successful in the competition.

Hughes has done well at first-class level for New South Wales this season and became the youngest player since Michael Clarke to make his first-class debut for his state, scoring fifty against Tasmania, back in November 2007.

This came on the back of a successful performance in Australia's 3-2 home defeat of Pakistan last April, where his 324 runs at an average of 108, including two centuries, were instrumental in his side's success.

However, the 5-0 defeat at the hands of Pakistan in October 2007 gives plenty of cause for concern. The team struggled to adapt to local conditions, although the performance of slow left armer Daniel Burns, who ended up as the leading wicket taker for Australia in the series, was very positive.

Burns, from New South Wales, could potentially form a potent spin partnership with Clive Rose, another slow left armer, who is from Victoria.

Much attention will be on Kumar Sarna, who was born in Delhi but spent his adolescence in Australia. Sarna is a powerful opening batsman who idolises Sachin Tendulkar. Steven Smith, who made his debut at senior level for New South Wales in the Ford Ranger One Day Cup in December, will also be an important player.

Skipper Hill is greatly anticipating the challenge of representing his side at the event. He said: "It is a great honour to be representing Australia. It is something many people strive to achieve and one that I am really looking forward to. It is going to be a challenge and I am sure there will be some very good players from around the world.

"Like all other teams, I am hoping that we play really good cricket and I think that if we do that, we have a good chance of being really successful at the event."

The team has experienced conditions in Malaysia, having taken on Malaysia U/19 in two matches last year, and Australia's domestic U/19 championships in December ensured that players have recent experience of playing in an event format. They could be one of the teams to beat at this event.

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