ICC U-19 World Cup started on 19th January in South Africa in search of future stars who will be representing their countries and importantly, the legacy of cricket in the world. This World Cup was set to be hosted by Srilanka but due to influence from the Government. Sri Lanka was then banned, and the rights for hosting were taken.
New Format of the Game:
ICC U-19 World Cup introduced a new format system for the tournament to make it interesting, and to provide every team with more opportunities to express themselves. The previous rule was that from the round-robin league, two teams from every group were to be selected for the quarterfinals keeping in mind that it was a bit tough for the teams. ICC changed the format and now from every group, three teams are qualifying for the Super 12 only, to be divided into two groups eventually, making it to the Super Six stage.
Now, a similar rule was used by the ICC in the recently conducted ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023, where the teams played their groups. After that, the teams were split into groups where they played with the teams of other group teams. The teams on the same number in both groups won’t be playing each other instead, they will play teams lower than them. For example top team of Group A won’t get to play the Top team of Group D they will play teams 2nd & 3rd and vice versa for the others. The Max a team can carry is 2 wins if it is not defeated in the Group Stage.
Related to U10 World Cup: The Road to Glory
The change that makes the difference and makes the round-robin league even more interesting is that points taken in the round-robin against their group teams will be carried forward into the Super 6 group. Their NRR will also be carried into the Super Six stage making the round-robin league matches interesting and every match deemed to be meaningful.
ICC U-19 World Cup Super Six Analysis:
ICC U-19 World Cup has now entered into an exciting phase and now you will be seeing teams fighting it out to take the glory in their hands with the semi-final berth lined up for them. Now we will be viewing the group situation and will analyze what this group depicts.
Super Sixes Group 1
| NO | Teams | Played | Won | Lost | N/R | Tied | NRR | Points |
| 1 | India | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +2.850 | 4 |
| 2 | Pakistan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1.356 | 4 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.651 | 2 |
| 4 | Bangladesh | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.667 | 2 |
| 5 | Nepal | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -0.800 | 0 |
| 6 | Ireland | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -2.227 | 0 |
Now if we look into this group we can see the teams that have taken the top spot in their groups are already in a good position to have their semi-final berth locked as they both have to be the teams who were inferior in the ranks from the other related groups.
To provide clarity, India will be playing Group D 2nd New Zealand and Group D 3rd Nepal. Whereas Pakistan would be playing with Group A 2nd Bangladesh Group A 3rd Ireland. Now this makes it very difficult for the teams of New Zealand and Bangladesh to qualify because they will have to defeat the top-ranked team of the other group as they are ahead on points and must win against them to stand any chance of qualifying for the semis.
Super Sixes Group 2
| NO | Teams | Played | Won | Lost | N/R | Tied | NRR | Points |
| 1 | Australia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +2.340 | 4 |
| 2 | Sri Lanka | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +0.431 | 2 |
| 3 | West Indies | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +0.175 | 2 |
| 4 | South Africa | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.064 | 2 |
| 5 | England | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.082 | 2 |
| 6 | Zimbabwe | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -3.667 | 0 |
An analysis of the group shows this group to be a call to death. Five big teams are in this group and only Australia is the one that is ahead but Australia will have to play West Indies and England, not the inferior sides can defeat them whereas if we look at South Africa they will be playing Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Now they can certainly defeat Srilanka and Srilanka can also defeat them but with Zimbabwe being their second this match can give them a hiatus they need to qualify in the group and their NRR is not where it should be at the moment.
In this group, every team apart from Zimbabwe has the chance and potential to defeat any team on a given day and it would be interesting to see the matches how they unfold and what the situation will be but surely after every game this group has the potential to show changes and the excitement that was much required in the ICC U-19 World Cup.
