The groups, fixtures and venues of the much awaited U19 Youth Asia Cup 2016 which is to start in mid-December in Sri Lanka have been announced by Asian Cricket Council.
The eight-team competition will kick off on 15th December and will go on till 23rd December with the final to be played under lights at R. Premadasa International Stadium. The hosts, Sri Lanka has been drawn with former champions, India, Nepal and Malaysia in group A while Pakistan will battle it out with Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Singapore in group B.
Group A teams will be based in Colombo with three venues, NCC, CCC and De Zoysa Stadium, Moratuwa hosting the six matches while the group B countries will be camped in Southern part of Sri Lanka as they will be playing their matches at Galle International Stadium, Matara Uyanwaththa Stadium and Surrey Village Grounds, Maggona. Two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.
Sri Lanka U19 vs India U19 – Semi Finals
All group matches will be played on 15th, 16th and 18th while the semi-finals will be worked out on 20th and 21st of December.
Any player who is eligible for the 2018 ICC U19 Youth World Cup will be able to take part in this tournament and ambidextrous spinner from Richmond College, Kamindu Mendis is tipped to lead the Sri Lankan team.
A squad of 19 Sri Lankan players has been training ferociously for the last couple of weeks under the watchful eyes of Head Coach Roy Dias and the final 15-member Sri Lanka U19 squad will be announced this week.
Read: Abhishek Sharma set to lead India Under-19 in Youth Asia Cup
