ICC U-19 World Cup 2018: Present bright. Future safe as India's youngsters make a statement

Bengaluru, February 3: India's title triumph in the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2018 will be celebrated across the country, across the media for the coming few days. Justifiably so.

But the real significance of this eight victory over Australia on Saturday (February 3) that it has given Indian cricket a few more names to look forward to. Sustaining the feeder line is very important for any sports and in that context this young India side has a lot of potential.

Prithivi Shaw has already earned headlines as the next prodigy from the Mumbai stables. Now, the likes of Shubman Gill, Manjot Kalra, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Anukul Roy etc have joined their skipper in the list of stars-in-waiting.

India U19 coach Rahul Dravid summarised it quite aptly.

"There is a process now in place in Indian cricket - U-19 cricket to first-class cricket and then to India A and then the India national team, when the opportunity arrives.

"I have been talking to these players about other formats as well. If they can make it to the India A team in 6-8 months, it will be great. We see this as a stepping stone," said Dravid.

Stepping stone indeed this tournament has been. Gill had a wonderful tournament and his lowest score was the 31 he scored in the final and Kalra became second Indian after Unmukt Chand to get a hundred in the U19 World Cup final.

In the days to come, these two hopefully will migrate to the senior team but two names India will be watching with great interest will be Nagarkoti and Mavi.

The speed guns marked on more than one occasion their speed well in excess of the 140 kmph mark and it's a quality that every bowler is not blessed with.

They should be preserved in cotton wool and ensured that not lost to Indian cricket while making the transition to topflight cricket. Some years ago bowlers like Mrithyunjay Tripathi and Shalabh Srivastava had impressed mightily in the U19 World Cup but failed to repeat the success at a higher level.

Similarly, left-arm spinner Anukul Roy, who picked up 14 wickets to end up as joint highest wicket-taker in the U19 World Cup, too should be nurtured properly as India will have sufficient spin options in a year or two.

The recognition to some of the them have already come in the way of an Indian Premier League (IPL) contract and the Board of Control for Cricket in India too has announced handsome cash awards for the young stars.

Rest assured, sponsors and agents will be jostling in coming days in front of their home with new contracts, deals. Sports bodies and governments will announce further awards and bank balances are set to swell substantially.

It will be a gratifying period for these kids and time to enjoy the fruits of their success. But this could also be a tricky period. While taking in the adulation, they should not forget the path through which they came here, the core values that enabled them reap success, set in them so strongly by Dravid.

In this tournament, they never seemed obsessed with the result as they focused on the overall approach and the way to capitalise the chinks in their opponents. It's the way forward for them to stay on the road to higher success. It's not only theirs but we will have to share that responsibility.