World Cup 2019: With 29.5 years of average age, this is the oldest Indian squad

India announced their squad for the ICC World Cup 2019 on April 15 which will be led by Virat Kohli. The selectors went for Vijay Shankar over Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik over fellow wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and these two decisions created quite a bit of fuss. While KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja also made the cut. However, the overall reaction to the selection of the squad was fair and the experts hoped that the Men in Blue could win their third title with this outfit.

One interesting aspect about the current squad is that it is the oldest overall to represent India at the World Cup with an average age of 29.5 years. On the contrary, the Indian squad that had competed in the 1992 edition in Australia and New Zealand under the leadership of Mohammed Azharuddin was the youngest at an average age of 25.4 years. Captain Azharuddin was aged 29 years and 14 days at the time of the ’92 WC while Kohli is over 30 at time of the 2019 edition.

The 1992 edition was a mix of experience and youth with 18-year Sachin Tendulkar, 20-year-old Vinod Kambli, 21-year-old Ajay Jadeja, 22-year-old Javagal Srinath and 23-year-old Praveen Amre and Subroto Banerjee competing alongside the likes of Kapil Dev (33), Kris Srikkanth (32) and Kiran More (29).

This time, the youngest member of the squad is spinner Kuldeep Yadav (24) while the oldest is Mahendra Singh Dhoni (37). Dhoni is, in fact, the second-oldest player a WC-bound India team features after Sunil Gavaskar who was 38 in 1987.

India’s previous oldest WC squad was in 2011 when they won the trophy

India’s previous oldest squad at the World Cup was in 2011 when they aged 28.3 years on an average with Sachin Tendulkar, the youngest player of ’92, taking the field as the oldest at 37. The other Indian squad that won the WC in 1983 had the average age of 27.1 with Gavaskar being its oldest member at 33 and current coach Shastri the youngest at 21.

The second youngest Indian squad at the WC was in 2003 when Sourav Ganguly led an outfit with an average age of 25.8 years. It’s the youngest player Parthiv Patel, 17 then, went on to break the record of Tendulkar as the youngest player (in 1992).

[interaction id=”5cbae8296fdf9a7a17e42b76″]

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from World Cup 2019, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.