Tom Jones, the Otago opener, will lead a fairly experienced New Zealand side at the 2026 Men's Under-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Five of the 15 squad members have domestic caps, and three, including Jones, had participated at the 2024 edition of the tournament.  Last month, Jones scored a hundred on his first-class debut against Wellington.

Others with domestic experience are batter Snehith Reddy, wicketkeeper Aryan Mann, fast bowler Mason Clarke, and bowling-allrounder Jaskaran Sandhu.  Reddy and Clarke made their List A debuts earlier this year. Like Jones, they had also participated in the last edition in South Africa. Reddy had brought up the highest score of the tournament (147*) against Nepal, and Clarke had taken 4 for 62 against runners-up India. 

Hugo Bogue, Brandon Matzopoulous, Marco Alpe and Jacob Cotter have been picked after their impressive performance with the bat at the national U-19 tournament in Lincoln last week.  Allrounders Harry Burns and Flynn Morey will bolster the seam-bowling attack; both took a five-wicket haul each at the tournament and ended up on ten wickets overall.  For players to be eligible for the tournament, they must be under 19 years of age on August 31 2026.

The squad will leave for Africa on January 2. They will have a training camp in Bulawayo before the tournament's warm-up period begins on January 9. New Zealand are in Group B, and start their tournament against USA on January 18. India and Bangladesh are the other two teams in their group.  Former New Zealand batter Anton Devcich will be the head coach, with NZC High Performance coaches Paul Wiseman and Graeme Aldridge supporting him. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)