Raj Bawa is mentally very strong: India Under-19 captain Yash Dhull

The U19 Indian team penned history at Antigua as they lifted the World Cup beating England in a topsy-turvy encounter. It needed some resolute stand in the middle to counter an incursive English force.

The captain and the vice-captain stuck together while a late blitzkrieg brought the trophy home in the face of a wobbly chase with a couple of late wickets keeping the Indian supporters on their toes. The man who was adjudged as the man of the match in the crucial final was India’s most dependable all-rounder, Raj Bawa.

He contributed handsomely with the ball as he claimed four important wickets while his willow talked at the most crucial juncture guiding India to safety when the English bowlers were just opening up a window that could have registered an important turnaround of events.

The U19 captain opened up about the special performance on a very special occasion. Yash Dhull, who stitched together an important 17 that weathered the initial English storm, quoted, “He is very strong mentally, he knows what to do in crunch situations, and he is very confident about his game.”

If one would closely examine the figures of Bawa in the tournament opener, it exhibited 4 for 47. However, his opening over that spanned for 8 balls leaked a staggering 17 runs. Dhull shed light on the life that was led by Bawa. He quoted, “He is a bit different," Dhull said. "While we have been enjoying ourselves, he has been focusing on his bowling in a big way, spending more time at training, speaking to the coaches, speaking to VVS (Laxman) sir. So the improvement showed.”

Quoting about Bawa’s short ball that was hurled at George Bell, English captain, Tom Prest quoted, “The ball he bowled to George Bell, first ball, I don't really know how he could have played that. He obviously bowled really well, so credit to him, we really didn't have an answer today."

Dhull continued with his praises for the Indian youth team, as he further added, “The medium-pacers have been doing well since the Asia Cup, giving us good starts with the ball, and that has made it easier for the spinners when they bowl to the middle order. Ravi and Bawa gave us a good start today, and (Rajvardhan) Hangargekar has been doing well all along. It was a good performance.”

The Indian captain also opened up about the partnership that stitched the solitary stand of resistance that England had up their sleeves. He said, “When they [England] had a partnership, between a left-hander and a right-hander and the pitch had improved. They were batting well then, so we focused on dot balls. We knew there would be a partnership somewhere, they are a good team, but we didn't feel any pressure, because we were prepared for everything."

Yash then focused his attention on the Indian chase that got very tricky at a point in time. He was heard quoting, “We were normal. We knew we had a lot of batters. Even Ravi can bat. We have a lot of all-rounders. So, we were confident. We felt things were normal and we were in control. While batting, the pitch had improved. So, we knew that if we batted deep, we would get there. We just needed to bat till the end."

He also shared his experience about batting with Rasheed. He said, “We are good friends, we spend a lot of time together, we eat a lot of our meals together. So… when batting, we thought we would bat deep and finish it off. But I got out, unfortunately, and then Sindhu came and batted well. Then Bawa and Bana finished it off."