U19 World Cup 2018 Final: Ryan Harris keeps India ahead of Australia

India - Australia will play the finals of the tournament.

India U19 is unbeaten so far in the tournament. (Getty)The ICC World Cup 2018 has come down to the business end of the tournament. The grand finale of the tournament will see two of the best teams of the tournament, India and Australia fight it out for the trophy. 

Before the final, Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris who coached the young boys in the tournament has kept India ahead of Australia. 

Regarding Australia playing the finals of the tournament, Harris said " It’s great, it’s a challenge for our guys. These guys haven’t faced so many guys who are consistently up around 135-140 mark. It’s a great challenge, it’s fantastic to see some young fast bowlers coming out of India. They are obviously some good bowlers (in the senior side) at the moment, but usually, we speak about spinners coming out of there. It’s fantastic to see young fast bowlers there". 

“I think India have to be favorites,” he said on Thursday. “They’ve gone through pretty convincingly in the tournament. But I don’t worry about that, I won’t talk to the boys about being underdogs. The best thing is that these boys were really disappointed after the first game. They wanted to face India again and have another crack at them. It’s just great that it’s in a World Cup final".

Harris also kept a word on Australia's defeat against India in the league stage and said that the defeat made them a tougher team in the tournament. 

“After that loss to India, the boys have been keen to hopefully face India again. Obviously, with the change of draw – it was going to be a semifinal and now it’s the final. They’re really excited, they want another go at redeeming themselves. India are the in-form side, when you’re in the final against the in-form side, that’s what you want to do.”

The different challenges Australia faced, Harris explained, would stand them in good stead going into a high-pressure final.

“We’ve had to fight to get here. We’ve had to fight against England. We had a good game against Afghanistan, obviously lost a couple of wickets there but our guys kept their composure,” he said. “We have been put under the pump, that’s what we’ll try and do to India because they haven’t been tested as yet".

“Don’t get me wrong, they’re playing some really good cricket and are a really good side. But I don’t think they’ve been challenged at all during this tournament. Our job is to challenge them, put them under pressure and hope they crack" concluded Harris saying that Australia will certainly challenge India in the finals. 

 
 

By Anshuman Roy - 01 Feb, 2018

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