India U19 WC: Watch out for rising star Armaan Jaffer: Armaan grabbed headlines when he scored 498 runs for his school, Rizvi Springfield School in 2010 and rewrote the record of 403 runs set by his uncle, Waseem Jaffer. However, Arman’s record was surassed by a knock of 546 runs by Prithvi Shaw in the Harris Shield Tournament 2014 and that also was recently overtaken by a score of 1009* runs by Pranav Dhanawade.
17-year old Armaan Jaffer, playing for Mumbai in the U19 Cooch Behar Trophy, knocked up three consecutive double-tons – 224 against Madhya Pradesh, 223 against Odisha and 218* against Karnataka narrowly missing the landmark of scoring four ‘back to back’ double centuries when he notched up only 174 runs against Tripura.
The dual feat of consecutive double-tons and four ‘back-to-back’ centuries’ is a new record in the tournament. There has been no instance of three consecutive double centuries even in domestic or international cricket.
While there is an instance of four ‘back-to-back’ centuries in ODI format with the Sri Lankan legend, Kumara Sangakkara achieving it in World Cup 2015 (105* against Bangladesh, 117* against England, 104 against Australia and 124 against Scotland), Everton Weeks, Rahul Dravid, Younis Khan, Jack Fingleton and Alan Melville did it in the Tests.
All these performances have held Arman in good stead and he has been included in the Indian squad for the ICC U19 World Cup scheduled to be played in Bangladesh from 22nd January, 2016.
This is definitely a big opportunity for the youngster to make a mark at international level.
Even back home, the franchisees of IPL would be keeping a close watch on these young turks and might suitably reward them with big contracts.
