India will take the field with full might in their ICC U-19 World Cup quarter final match against Bangladesh in Osbourn, Antigua, on Saturday as five of their key players, including captain Yash Dhull, have recovered from Covid-19 infection and are fit to play.

Despite that piece of good news, the Indian camp will be a bit worried with Nishant Sindhu, who captained the team in the absence of Dhull, testing positive following the final league game against Uganda. He won’t be available for the knock-out match.

India should be high on confidence having qualified for the quarters as group toppers. They, in fact, won their last two group games comfortably even while missing multiple players.

The five players who have recovered from the virus attack are Dhull, his deputy Shaik Rasheed, Sidharth Yadav, Aaradhya Yadav and Manav Parakh. Dhull and Rasheed are important batters for the team and had looked in good touch against South Africa in their tournament opener.

Opener Angkrish Raghuvanshi and all-rounder Raj Bawa too can be expected to be among runs after their match-winning centuries against Uganda.

Left-arm spinner Vicky Ostwal has been India’s stand out bowler in the tournament with seven wickets. Pacer Rajvardhan Hangargekar has looked potent force too.

(Match starts: 6.30pm IST)

Afghan stunner

Afghanistan sneaked into the semi-finals after edging out Sri Lanka by 4 runs in a hard-fought quarter final in Coolidge, Antigua, on Thursday. The Afghans were bundled out for just 134. But they staged a superb fightback to bowl out the Lankans for 130 in 46 overs.

(Written with agency inputs)