NEW DELHI: India's Asia Cup U-19 campaign will be led by Gen Z batting stars Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre, but all eyes will also be on whether the BCCI permits the youngsters to exchange handshakes with their Pakistani counterparts, a gesture symbolising sporting civility at the junior level.

The India U-19 team, captained by the dynamic Mumbai and CSK opener Mhatre, begins its campaign against the UAE on Friday. However, it is the clash against Pakistan on Sunday that is expected to attract the most attention in the junior continental championship, widely regarded as a rehearsal for next year's U-19 World Cup.

What prompted India's stance?

In the senior men's Asia Cup, as well as the Women's ODI World Cup and the Rising Stars Asia Cup T20, several Indian players have refused to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts, citing solidarity with the Indian Army and the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack.

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For the U-19 cricketers, however, the situation is expected to be different. Sources suggest that even the ICC prefers keeping politics out of junior cricket, encouraging players to follow standard protocols of sportsmanship and uphold the spirit of the game.

"The boys haven't been told anything. But obviously BCCI has given explicit instructions to its manager Anand Datar. Now if Indian boys don't shake hands with Pakistan team then match referee will have to be informed in advance.

"We know for a fact that ICC doesn't want politics to take front seat when it comes to junior cricket. So it is a case of both bad optics and public sentiment," a BCCI official in the know of things told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

As far as the tournament is concerned, India and Pakistan are almost sure to qualify for the semi-finals as the top two teams from group A. Apart from India and Pakistan, the other two sides are Malaysia and UAE, and they don't have a lot of experience of playing 50 over cricket.

Both Suryavanshi and skipper Mhatre are coming into the tournament following a great run of form in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. While Mhatre played a massive role in the group league stages with back-to-back centuries and a fifty, Suryavanshi became the youngest player in SMAT history to hit a century, against Maharashtra.

In India's squad of 15, these are two boys, who have played more than 30 senior level games across the three formats and cumulatively scored nine centuries.

That, in fact, is the most number of senior level centuries when all the other seven teams are combined and it does make India the runaway favourites in the junior continental championship.

India U19 squad for Asia Cup: Ayush Mhatre (C), Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Vihaan Malhotra (vc), Vedant Trivedi, Abhigyan Kundu (wk), Harvansh Singh (wk), Yuvraj Gohil, Kanishk Chouhan, Khilan A. Patel, Naman Pushpak, D. Deepesh, Henil Patel, Kishan Kumar Singh, Udhav Mohan, Aaron George.

(With PTI Inputs)