U-19 WC: India's Vasu Vats Approved as Replacement for Manav Parakh by ICC

India have qualified for the quarter-finals & a win vs Uganda in the last group game will see them top the group.

File: India U-19 team celebrate a wicket against Afghanistan.

Image: BCCI

A day after the Indian U-19 team at the ongoing World Cup called in replacements in the form of five players, the team has made another change. Right arm bowler Vasu Vats was approved by the the event technical committee as a temporary COVID-19 replacement for right-arm spinner Manav Parakh.

Both Vasu and Manav were part of the 17-member squad at the World Cup, but according to a report in ESPN Cricinfo, the group was divided into 15 and 2, with the two being travelling reserve players.

Vats was part of the second category, the other being batter Aaradhya Yadav. Both were part of the group of six players who had tested positive and had to isolate before the game against Ireland. However, since then Vats has returned negative tests while Aaradhya tested positive.

The negative test meant Vats was available to be added to the squad for the final group game against Uganda, taking India’s squad tally for the contest to 12.

Parakh, along with the designated captain Yash Dhull and vice-captain Shaik Rasheed, and Siddarth Yadav are currently in isolation. But, once he recovers, Parakh will be allowed to return in Vats' place.

On Friday, the BCCI had sent five players, Uday Saharan, Abishek Porel, Rishith Reddy, Ansh Gosai and Pushpendra Singh Rathore, as cover to the Caribbean, but they were not going to be available for the Uganda fixture since they have to serve mandatory quarantine after landing in the West Indies.

The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad. The Event Technical Committee consists of the Chair Chris Tetley (ICC Head of Events), Ben Leaver (ICC Senior Event Manager), Fawwaz Baksh (Tournament Director), Roland Holder (CWI Representative) Alan Wilkins and Russel Arnold (both independent representatives).

India squad for Uganda fixture: Nishant Sindhu (capt), Harnoor Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Aneeshwar Gautam, Dinesh Bana, Raj Angad Bawa, Kaushal Tambe, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Vicky Ostwal, Ravi Kumar, Garv Sangwan, Vasu Vats.