U19s with world at their feet

Northants' Alex Wakely captains England in the Under-19 World Cup this month © Getty Images

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England’s Under-19 stars go into the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur knowing a series of impressive performances could catapult them on to the international stage.

Previous Under-19 World Cups have been the springboard to the international careers of Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Mark Ramprakash, Owais Shah, Robert Key, Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara and Liam Plunkett among others.

This time round captain Alex Wakely of Northants leads a 15-strong group which includes Middlesex opening batsman Billy Godleman, county team-mate Steven Finn and fellow fast bowler James Harris of Glamorgan.

Coach Andy Pick’s squad begin their Group D campaign against Ireland on Sunday before clashes with Bermuda and Bangladesh.

Pick, who coached Canada in last year’s senior tournament, believes each individual understands there are no guarantees at this fledgling stage of their cricket careers.

“I would hope they were aware enough to know the potential, but one of the things we said to them is how close they could be to making their international debut,” he told ecb.co.uk.

Middlesex's Steven Finn has recovered from an operation on a hernia © Getty Images

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“But also if you look back at the last two, three or four Under-19 World Cups - for everyone whose gone on to play Test cricket there’s an example of someone whose not playing cricket at all.

“Hopefully we try to ensure they don’t see it as a guaranteed stepping stone. It’s an opportunity to prove yourself against the best of your peers around the world. It’s not the case that if you do well at the World Cup you’re destined for great things.

“The guys need to play together now and get used to the system we are going to use. It’s been difficult to get what you might call the strongest side on the field until now because Stevie Finn has been coming back from his hernia surgery.”

Finn featured in both England’s warm-up matches on Malaysian soil, claiming 3-39 against India in his first full spell this year, and his availability gives Pick the option of selecting his strongest side against Ireland.

And despite the prospect of facing lowly Bermuda in England’s second game, Pick is determined his team will not let their foot off the gas at any point in the group stage.

“Wednesday was the first time Finnie has been available for us to play a full role in the game. We’ve been nursing him back and introducing him back at practice and into a couple of match situations,” added Pick.

“From now on in we will pick our best side, but the difficulty with under-19 cricket is that the guys aren’t consistent enough at the best of times to be able to rest people and bring in other people.

Opener Billy Godleman could be England's star batsman in Kuala Lumpur © Getty Images

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“We need to try to get a message through to them that we need to be pushing to the best of our ability in every game regardless of trying to take into account the strength of our opposition.

“The moment you start to change the team and change your approach depending on the perceived strength of the opposition - that’s a recipe for disaster.”

England’s toughest group test will surely be in their third match against Bangladesh - which could have significant implications with one of India, South Africa or West Indies waiting as possible quarter-final opponents.

Pick is confident England have the quality to challenge for the title after two victories over two-time defending champions Pakistan during their build-up in Sri Lanka and host city Kuala Lumpur where pitches will be conducive to spin.

“Billy Godleman was successful in the summer and has continued his success with a couple of hundreds and a couple of fifties and played well while we’ve been away.

“Steven Finn has come back in the last couple of games but he showed in the summer he’s a quality performer as is James Harris from Glamorgan.

“From a spin bowling point of view Liam Dawson and Tom Westley have both bowled well since we’ve come away and Ben Brown has kept wicket well and has put together a number of good scores, including 90-odd not out in one of the early games in Sri Lanka.

“It’s a very talented squad. The challenge is whether they play to their potential or not and if they do I’m sure they will be very close come the end of the competition, but if you don’t play to your potential there’s always the chance you won’t progress as far as you would like to.”