Suman, Rao find of series: Srikkanth

Srikkanth said the short tour of the Lankans had helped unearth fresh talent. “We knew about the capabilities of Reetinder Sodhi and Mohammed Kaif who have been playing in higher grade for a couple of years now. But the emergence of Delhi’s left-arm medium pacer Amit Suman and the batting of Rajat Bhatia and Venugopal Rao were the positive points of theseries,” he said.

In fact, Srikkanth was so impressed by Suman’s bowling that he spoke about the talented boy to Delhi and national selector Madan Lal when the latter came to witness the match at the Kotla. Suman, a 11th standard student of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, was included in the Delhi Ranji squad for the game against Orissa.

Venugopal Rao, a XII student of Lankapalli Bullaya College in Vizag, was another cricketer to make the best of the series. “It is remarkable for an Andhra boy to bat so well because he doesn’t get opportunities to face quality bowling in his home state,” Srikkanth said.

Jyoti Bajpai, joint secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said a short camp has been planned in Bangalore in June-July for some selected under-19 players in preparation for next January’s Youth World Cup in Colombo. “There is a plan to send an Indian team to Sri Lanka in September. Besides, Lanka are planning to host a tri-nation tournament prior to the Cup,” Bajpai said.