The brilliance of Raj Bawa and a composed run-chase saw India outclass England in the final of the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2022 at the Sir Vivian Richard Stadium in Antigua. India’s victory was wrapped up with four wickets and 14 balls to spare, securing a record fifth crown for India in the ICC event’s history. No nation has dominated U19 Men’s international cricket like India have over the past two-and a-bit decades. The four-wicket victory in Antigua means that India have now won the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup five times in 22 years, finishing runners up in a further three tournaments in that period.
The Indian side were well worth their title too, dominating throughout the 2022 event despite the disruption of a number of COVI-19 positive tests during the group stage. India hit the highest team score of the tournament (405/5 vs Uganda), posted the highest individual score of the tournament (Raj Bawa’s 162*), and did not allow an opponent to score in excess of 200 runs in any of their six matches.
The side have offered threat with spin, with Vicky Ostwal the stand-out, and have bowled well with pace to, while all of the front-line batters have also contributed significant knocks throughout the tournament.
In the final itself it was allrounder Bawa who lit it up with the ball, taking India’s first-ever five-for in a U19 World Cup final, before Shaik Rasheed and Nishant Sindhu stroked classy 50s in the successful run-chase.
Indian all-rounder Raj Angad Bawa comes from a family with sporting pedigree. His father was a respected cricket coach who helped Yuvraj Singh develop his game, while his grandfather was part of India's gold-medal-winning Olympic hockey team at the 1948 London Games.
Young Raj carried on his family’s sporting tradition with an eye-catching performance in the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Final, taking a brilliant 5/31 with his right-arm medium-fast bowling before contributing a handy 35 with the bat en-route to victory. Bawa’s five-for was the first by an Indian bowler in eight U19 World Cup finals, and included some big scalps too.
Thanks to his unbeaten 162* against Uganda in the group stage, Bawa also becomes only the second Indian U19 men’s player in the country’s history to take a five-wicket haul and hit a score over 150 at an ICC event, following in the footsteps of the legendary Kapil Dev. Bawa can bat, he can bowl, he can field, he can do just about anything he puts his mind to on a cricket field. The future is very bright for the 19-year-old from Chandigarh.