Big Picture
For the last four editions of the U-19 World Cup, the tournament has essentially been a contest to see who gets to face India in the final. The four-time champions are the competition’s most dominant team, and they once again start as favourites.
But they started as favourites in the final 2020 too and were humbled by Bangladesh. England will be hoping to do the same on Saturday, and there’s good reason for them to believe so.
Like India, England are unbeaten, winning all five games to get here. UAE and Canada were comfortably dispatched, and South Africa was beaten in the quarter-final, but most convincing were their wins over Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Both Asian sides were supposed to test England with their spinners, but neither could do much. Bangladesh were rolled over for 97 and Afghanistan were put away on a turning surface.
There’s one difference, though, and that’s how the campaign has gone for each side. For England, it’s been smooth sailing. But India’s has been dramatic.
A squad of 17 was slashed to only 11 available players for one game, 12 for another, and at least three captaincy candidates have been down with Covid-19 across different periods. However, you wouldn’t know it from their performances, they’ve been that clinical against all their opponents.
So where could the final be decided? England will back themselves against India’s pacers, but the jury is out on whether they can handle the Indian spinners who average 12.34 in the tournament. If they can, England could very well win their first U-19 World Cup title in 24 years.
Form guide
India WWWWW (Last five completed matches; most recent first)
England WWWWW
In the spotlight
Team news
Both teams are in a position to field their best XIs. England may bring in left-arm spinner Fateh Singh in place of James Sales if the pitch has some help for spinners while India are likely to play the same XI.
India (probable): 1 Harnoor Singh, 2 Angrish Raghuvanshi, 3 Shaik Rasheed, 4 Yash Dhull (capt), 5 Siddarth Yadav, 6 Raj Bawa, 7 Kaushal Tambe, 8 Dinesh Bana (wk), 9 Rajvardhan Hangargekar, 10 Vicky Ostwal, 11 Ravi Kumar
England (probable): 1 George Thomas, 2 Jacob Bethell, 3 Tom Prest (capt), 4 James Rew, 5 William Luxton, 6 George Bell, 7, Rehan Ahmed, 8 Alex Horton (wk), 9 Thomas Aspinwall, 10 James Sales, 11 Joshua Boyden
Pitch and conditions
Even though the pitches in the West Indies have assisted bowlers in the competition, the last game played at North Sound saw Pakistan score 365 for 3 against Sri Lanka side on Thursday. Since it is a final, the team winning the toss may just bat first to avoid the scoreboard pressure during the chase.
Stats and trivia
Stats by Sampath Bandarupalli
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx