New South Wales rookie Jason Sangha will captain Australia at next month's ICC Under 19 World Cup, with allrounder Austin Waugh – son of former national captain Steve – among the young guns included in the 15-player squad.

Exciting Victorian allrounder Will Sutherland has been named vice-captain for the event in New Zealand, while the Australians will have no shortage of experience to draw from at the three-week event, with former Australia paceman Ryan Harris to coach the side assisted by former opener Chris Rogers.

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The squad, who will be aiming to claim Australia's first title since a Mitch Marsh-led team featuring Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Nic Maddinson took out the 2010 event, contains seven players from New South Wales, three from Victoria, three from Queensland and one each from South Australia and Tasmania.

Last month Sangha became the youngest Australian to score a first-class century, posting triple figures against England playing in a tour game a Cricket Australia XI.

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Allrounder Sutherland also represented the CA XI against Pakistan last summer, and claimed four wickets in a JLT One-Day Cup match for Victoria Bushrangers in October.

Queensland duo Xavier Bartlett and Max Bryant, New South Wales pair Sangha and Param Uppal, and Victoria allrounder Jonathan Merlo have also played JLT Cup cricket for the CA XI over the past two summers.

"This is a very exciting squad and there is some exceptional talent within this group,” National Talent Manager Greg Chappell said. "We’ve got a good spread of skills through the squad.

"We’re quite strong with our pace bowling, we have good depth with our spin bowling, and a number of our top-order batsmen all offer viable bowling options, which gives us a lot of flexibility when it comes to team selection.

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"These guys have all had success at underage level in Australia over a number of years, and many of them have already had a taste of international under 19 cricket.

"We’re fortunate that a lot of these players have already played together coming through the underage pathway, which is a great thing.

"We believe this squad has a serious chance of contending for the title at the end of the tournament."

Australia have been drawn in Pool B for the tournament and will begin their World Cup campaign against India on January 14 at Tauranga’s Bay Oval, before matches against Zimbabwe (Jan 17) and Papua New Guinea (Jan 19) in Christchurch.

Australia Under 19 World Cup squad: Jason Sangha (C) (NSW), Will Sutherland (VC) (Vic), Xavier Bartlett (Qld), Max Bryant (Qld), Jack Edwards (NSW), Zak Evans (Vic), Jarrod Freeman (Tas), Ryan Hadley (New South Wales), Baxter Holt (NSW), Nathan McSweeney (Qld), Jonathan Merlo (Vic), Lloyd Pope (SA), Jason Ralston (NSW), Param Uppal (NSW), Austin Waugh (NSW)