Ayush Mhatre, the 17-year-old teenager who had a sparkling first-class debut with Mumbai and with Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, will captain the India Under-19 team that will travel to England for a multi-format tour in June-July 2025. Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the 14-year-old from Bihar and Rajasthan Royals opener, is also part of the 16-member squad. The tour will see India Under-19 play England Under-19 in a 50-over warm-up match, a five-match Youth one-day series and two multi-day matches.

Wicketkeeper Abhigyan Kundu, from Mumbai, will be the vice-captain. Vihaan Malhotra from Punjab, who has opened the batting with Suryavanshi in the past, is also part of the squad. Others to represent India U-19 previously are wicketkeeper-batter Harvansh Pangalia of Saurashtra, Bengal seamer Yudhajit Guha, Kerala legspinner Mohamed Enaan and Punjab offspinner Anmoljeet Singh. Enaan was the highest wicket-taker (16) in the two Youth Tests against Australia U19 while Anmoljeet (nine) was second.

Pangalia struck a century - 117 - in that series too. Khilan Patel, the allrounder from Gujarat who was Player of the Series in the Cooch Behar Trophy - the domestic Under-19 four-dayer tournament - on the back of his left-arm spin bowling and batting has earned a call-up too. The others in the squad are Maulyarajsinh Chavda, Rahul Kumar, RS Ambrish, Kanishk Chouhan, Henil Patel, Pranav Raghavendra and Aditya Rana. The standby players are Naman Pushpak, D Deepesh, Vedant Trivedi, Vikalp Tiwari and wicketkeeper Alankrith Rapole.

The squad was selected by the Junior Cricket Committee, which is currently led by Thilak Naidu. India Under-19s warm-up game will be played on June 24 at Loughborough University. The five-match youth ODIs will be played across Hove, Northampton and Worcester between June 27 and July 7. The first multi-day contest starts on July 15 in Beckenham and the second multi-day contest will be played at Chelmsford starting July 20. 

Age wise, all the players in this squad are eligible for the 2026 Under-19 World Cup scheduled to be held in Zimbabwe and Namibia early next year. Since the previous edition of the Under-19 World Cup, this will be the third engagement for the Under-19 side, having hosted Australia Under-19 at home in 2024, followed by the U-19 Asia Cup where they finished runner-up last year. 

India U-19 squad: Ayush Mhatre (capt), Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Vihaan Malhotra, Maulyarajsinh Chavda, Rahul Kumar, Abhigyan Kundu (vice-capt, wk), Harvansh Pangalia (wk), RS Ambrish, Kanishk Chouhan, Khilan Patel, Henil Patel, Yudhajit Guha, Pranav Raghavendra, Mohamed Enaan, Aditya Rana, Anmoljeet Singh.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)