Rahul Dravid’s younger son, Anvay Dravid, has been included in the C squad for the BCCI Under-19 Challenger Trophy to be played in Hyderabad from November 5-11. Earlier in 2024, Samit Dravid, Dravid’s eldest son, was included in the India Under-19 squad for the home bilateral series against Australia held in Pondicherry and Chennai. But due to injury, Summitt missed the matches. This time, his youngest son was included in one of the four Challenge Cup teams.
With the upcoming Under-19 World Cup scheduled to be held in Zimbabwe and Namibia next year, the BCCI Challenge Cup serves as a precursor to selecting the teams participating in the tournament. In the recently concluded Venu Mankad Trophy, Anvay Dravid led Karnataka to a quarter-final spot. In the six matches he played, he scored 220 runs with an unbeaten high score of 82 to go with another half-century in Dehradun. Karnataka won four of the five matches to finish second in the group stages before losing to eventual champions Hyderabad in the quarter-finals.
However, his highest score of 82 came against Himachal Pradesh, when he came on at number four and took Karnataka home chasing 236. In that knock Anuwai’s knock came from 93 deliveries including 6 boundaries and two sixes. His other half-century (63 off 75) came in their defeat to Chandigarh in the group stage.
While Anwai was named as the wicket-keeper in the C team which also includes Saurashtra glovesman Yuvraj Gohil. So far in the current Under-19 tournament, there are two other goalkeepers ranked high in the pecking order. Left-handed batsman Harvansh Singh, also from Saurashtra, started India’s home series against Australia where he made a century in the four-day match. Apart from him, there is also Mumbai’s Abhijayan Kundu, another aggressive batsman who has emerged as first choice.
Team A is led by Vihaan Malhotra from Punjab with Kundu the vice-captain. Vedant Trivedi will lead the B team and Harvansh will be his deputy. Aaron George, who led Hyderabad to the Venu Mankad Trophy without losing a match, will lead Team C which has Punjab’s Aryan Yadav as vice-captain. Chandrahas Dash, a key player for Bengal, was put in charge of the D team.
(Tags for translation) BCCI
