Cricket Kenya has announced a 15-member squad for the Under-19 World Cup, scheduled to begin in New Zealand on January 13. The squad will be flying to Sydney on December 28 to play two friendly matches against the Big Bash League team Sydney Thunder before it heads to Christchurch.

Kenya are placed alongside New Zealand, South Africa and the defending champions West Indies in Group A. The players are currently training in Nairobi as part of a nine-day camp. The team qualified for the tournament in July through the ICC Africa Under-19 World Cup qualifiers, where they were pitted against three other teams - Ghana, Botswana and Uganda. They won five out of their six games to make the cut.

"I am very excited as a coach to take this group to New Zealand," Kenya coach Jimmy Kamande - also the former captain of the senior national team - told the Star. "They are massively talented with the potential for even greater things. I'm confident we have picked a combination that will give us the desired results."

Kenya will face South Africa in Lincoln on January 14, before taking on New Zealand in Christchurch on January 17 and West Indies on January 20 back in Lincoln.

Squad: Aman Gandhi, Dennis Musyoka, Aveet Desai, Rene Were, Thomas Ochieng, Sachin Bhudia, Ankit Hirani, Sukhdeep Singh, Jasraj Kundi, Jayant Mepani, Jay Doshi, Maxwel Ager, G rard Mwendwa, Sidhart Vasudev, Abhishekh Chidambaran. Reserves: Minal Kerai, Viraj Patel.