Stats: Most consecutive fifty-plus scores in Youth ODIs

The U19 cricket is the first International exposure a player gets and it’s immensely valuable. Most of the senior Indian players right now once were a part of the Youth ODI sides, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja are the best examples. For a teenager to be wearing his country’s jersey and representing a whole nation is quite a big thing and everyone over the past has relished that opportunity.

The current crop of U19 cricketers is promising a very bright future. The likes of Prithvi Shaw, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Abhishek Sharma etc. are already hogging a lot of attention ahead of the gigantic IPL 2018 Auctions which is scheduled for tomorrow. Most of these players are hopeful of getting a big contract and it’d be very surprising if anyone of these misses out.

Whilst all these players have deservedly drawn the spotlight towards them, Shubman Gill, their fellow companion, has been busy breaking records. He is another one of those players who promise to barge into the national side in the times to come. It was his effort on Friday which helped India U19 beat the neighbours Bangladesh comprehensively to reach the semifinals.

Inches away from a sensational record

The 18-year-old is certainly in the form of his life. The youngster scored yet another half-century in his illustrious Youth ODI career, which keeps him on level terms with some big names. His 86 off 94 against Bangladesh happened to be his fifth consecutive score of 50 or more in Youth ODI history. Barring him and Gaurav Dhiman, no other Indian has managed to score more than three 50s at this level previously.

Current India U19 captain Prithvi Shaw fell 10 runs short of a fifty in the quarter-final today, which meant he missed his 4th consecutive score of fifty or more. The other players who managed to achieve this wonderful feat include the Sri Lankan opener Upul Tharanga. A graduate of the 2004 U19 batch, Tharanga went to amass tons of runs for his senior National side.

The only Indian on the list is Gaurav Dhiman, who was a part of the U19 team back in 2006. On the whole, six cricketers have managed to score five fifty-plus scores on the stretch and the streak has never gone past that mark. Windies’ player Xavier Marshall (2004), English batsman Ryan Higgins (2013) and South African Matthew Breetzke (2017) are the other players in the history to have achieved this feat.

Gill now has a golden opportunity to etch his name in the history books forever. India will be in action next up in the semi-final, where they will be facing arch-rivals Pakistan. No other batsman has ever registered 6 consecutive fifty-plus scores at this level and Gill, going by his form, is well on course to doing something staggering.

Here are the players with most consecutive fifty-plus scores in Youth ODI cricket: