The Priyam Garg-led Indian team left for the upcoming U-19 World Cup to be held in South Africa in January next year on Friday.

It is time to defend our crown!

India U19 left for South Africa today where they will take part in a bilateral series and a quadrangular series followed by the U19 Cricket World Cup! pic.twitter.com/p9szCESNen

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— BCCI (@BCCI) December 20, 2019

The 13th edition of the U-19 World Cup will be played among 16 teams, split into four groups.

Defending champions India are placed in Group A with first-time qualifier Japan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super League stage.

India are the most successful side in the competition having bagged four titles till date, including the last edition in 2018, when the Prithvi-Shaw led team got the better of Australia by eight wickets in the final and remained unbeaten in the tournament.

The team will play three one-day matches against the Proteas U-19 side, followed by a Quadrangular Series featuring South Africa U-19, India U-19, Zimbabwe U-19 and New Zealand U-19 before the real action begins.

On Thursday, at the Indian Premier League auction, the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, India’s youngest double centurion in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, was sold to Rajasthan Royals for a whopping INR 2.4 crore.

Spinner Ravi Bishnoi was snapped up by Kings XI Punjab for Rs2 crore while skipper Priyam Garg went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 1.9 crore. Kartik Tyagi was taken by Rajasthan Royals for INR 1.3 crore.

The squad underwent a boot camp in the Kabini Forest Safari at the Nagarhole National Park as reported by IANS earlier in the month. Sources in the know of developments said that the boys were undergoing the camp under the watchful eyes of former India fast bowler and current India U-19 head coach Paras Mhambrey.

Indian squad for U-19 World Cup: Priyam Garg (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Divyaansh Saxena, Dhruv Chand Jurel (vice-captain & wk), Shashwat Rawat, Divyansh Joshi, Shubhang Hegde, Ravi Bishnoi, Akash Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Atharva Ankolekar, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Sushant Mishra, Vidyadhar Patil.