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By Peter Della Penna

Heading into last week’s ICC Americas U-19 tournament in Florida, the overriding opinion from coaches, administrators and observers was that this U-19 team was not as talented as the squad that made it to the 2010 U-19 World Cup. That team featured some special players, including five who have played at the senior level for USA either before or after going to New Zealand.

As such, it was believed that this group might have a harder time than their predecessors getting past both Canada and Bermuda to reach the U-19 World Cup Qualifier later this summer in Ireland. That was proved wrong in emphatic fashion with a first place undefeated 5-0 record for USA’s U-19 team.

The biggest improvement in the team compared to the previous squad came in the pace bowling department. USA’s U-19 squad struggled for early breakthroughs in each of the three international tournaments they played in 2009 and 2010. Generally speaking, the team used 10 overs of pace at the top of the innings and then five overs at the end when the opposition took the batting power play. The rest of the overs were eaten up by spinners. There just wasn’t a reliable third pace bowling option.

Almost the exact opposite turned out to be the case in Fort Lauderdale. Salman Ahmad took a total of 8 wickets over three tournaments with the 2009-10 USA U-19 team, but the South West Region product has shown remarkable improvement over the last 18 months. Not many players have worked harder at developing their game than Ahmad and it showed as he became the undisputed spearhead of the USA U-19 attack in Florida, finishing with 11 wickets at an average of 5.55 and an economy rate of 2.18 in a team high 28 overs.

Image (right) - Salman Ahmad (right) gets a high five from captain Abhijit Joshi after removing Bermuda's Christian Burgess. Ahmad finished second on the team with 11 wickets. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

Ahmad teamed up with Hammad Shahid and Mital Patel to form a very incisive pace trio. At the same event in 2009 in Toronto, USA’s pace bowlers took just 12 wickets as opposed to 33 by the spinners. In Fort Lauderdale, USA’s fast men claimed 27 wickets while 17 were collected by the spinners. At the ICC Americas U-19 in 2009, the opposition had opening stands of 1, 12, 66, 62 and 14 runs. In 2011, USA’s opponents produced 0, 6, 6, 0 and 32 runs for the first wicket.

Not that USA’s spin bowlers were slouches in Florida. It’s just that they had less work to do. Leg-spinner Gurpreet Sandhu still managed to tie for the tournament lead with 12 wickets at an average of 3.67 despite bowling just 18 overs. Meanwhile, left-arm spinner Shayan Abdulghani took five wickets in 20 overs but had a remarkable 1.58 economy during the week. Arguably his best effort was one in which he went wicketless, finishing with 0 for 15 in 7.2 overs against Canada. The team also has highly regarded off-spinner Pranay Suri waiting in the wings, ready to make a contribution with the ball down the road after getting only one over in Florida.

A large part of the precision and focus was passed down to the team by new head coach Robin Singh. While 10 of the players were playing for USA for the first time, they all looked like well drilled veterans by the end of the week. After each of the first four games, Singh took the players back out onto the field for one to two hours to engage in a series of demanding practice sessions, utilizing all of the time he had available with the team. During matches, he would take the three players not in the starting XI, make them run sprints and do other training activities instead of allowing them to sit on their hands for three hours. It paid off with the end result.

The only area of concern appears to be the batting unit. Cameron Mirza was the tournament MVP and formed a potent opening combination with Steven Taylor, but what followed after them is a cause for worry. While the middle order only got two chances to bat, they collectively failed both times against Argentina and Canada. The only noteworthy contributions were Ahmad’s scorching 62 at number seven against Argentina and a fighting 34 made by Suri at number six against Canada.

Image (left) - Cameron Mirza receives his Tournament MVP award from former West Indies Test spinner Lance Gibbs. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

If Greg Sewdial returns to 100% fitness this spring following a second ankle surgery in December, he figures to be a shoe-in for the squad going to Ireland. The team needs someone with plenty of experience to strengthen the lineup. He had a subpar tournament at the U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Toronto in 2009, but finished as USA’s leading scorer at the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand and that was with a damaged ankle that became progressively worse with every match he participated in.

He originally injured it prior to the 2009 USACA U-19 National Tournament. Now that the problem has hopefully been corrected, Sewdial can focus on getting fit and back to his best form. With him in the squad, USA’s chances of advancing to the 2012 ICC U-19 World Cup are greatly enhanced.

USA will be joined by Canada from the Americas for the 10-team ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier. They’ll be taking on Kenya and Namibia from Africa, Afghanistan and Nepal from Asia, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu from East Asia-Pacific, as well as Scotland and hosts Ireland from Europe. USA will play nine matches in the round-robin format event that will take place from July 28-August 9.

Should USA finish in the top six in Ireland, it appears that Australia will be the final destination for the 2012 U-19 World Cup. It was reported on January 6 in a Sa’adi Thawfeeq article on ESPNcricinfo that Australia will be hosting the event. Several other sources have indicated the same. However, no official confirmation or announcement has been made by the ICC.