03 February,2018 11:15 AM IST | New Delhi | PTI
Unmukt Chand
He knows the perils and privileges of being a successful young cricketer and U-19 World Cup winning-captain Unmukt Chand has a message for Prithvi Shaw and Co. - "the real journey for all the boys will begin after tomorrow's final." The Indian team, led by Prithvi, is set to fight it out with Australia in the U-19 World Cup summit clash today. In 2012, Unmukt led the India colts to World Cup triumph with a hundred in the final.
Unmukt, 24, remembers all that and can relate to what Prithvi, Shubman Gill or Kamlesh Nagarkoti may be going through right now. "After tomorrow, they will enter the man's world. A beautiful phase of their life will end and a new journey with full of challenges await them.
"Prithvi's team are favourites. They should just play freely forgetting everything else. Win or lose, it will only be significant but just a part of their bigger journey," Unmukt shared his feelings with PTI ahead of the big final. "The boys need to be practical. I know what happens after every U-19 World Cup. But every U-19 cricketer's story is not Virat Kohli's and there is a story of Unmukt Chand (trying to work his way back to national reckoning)," Unmukt said.
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"That is life and that's where one needs to be realistic. It shouldn't be like after U-19 people should tell them that now you are just one or two performances away from a national team," he added.
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