10 Cricketers who led both U19 and national teams

6. Hashim Amla (South Africa) – 2002:

For Hashim Amla, captaincy has been a sweet and sour experience; sweet with the under-19 team and sour with the national team. Amla was a prodigious talent ever since his age group level cricket days. He led his team wonderfully to the finals of the 2002 edition where they, unfortunately, lost to the Australian team led by Cameron White.

His current Test teammate Stephen Cook was also a part of the team. He had a very mediocre time with the bat in the tournament scoring 191 runs in 8 matches with the help of two half-centuries. But, it would have been a huge mistake to judge him based on that performance at that time. Amla is now South Africa’s batting pillar and has grown into a cricketing giant.

After making his Test debut in 2004 against India, Amla was promoted to vice-captaincy of the side in 2011. 18 months later, he accepted the captaincy role. He started off well but later struggled to manage the workload. Eventually, he decided to step down from the captaincy following heavy defeats at the hands of India and England. He was in charge of the team in 14 Tests (4 wins, 4 losses and 6 draws) and 9 ODIs (4 wins and 5 loses).