Aneurin Donald recalled for U-19 World Cup

Aneurin Donald, the Glamorgan batsman and former England Under-19 captain, has been recalled to the England U-19 squad for the World Cup in Bangladesh early next year. However, the Hampshire offspinner Brad Taylor will retain the captaincy for the tournament.

Donald will return to a batting line-up which rested heavily on Essex's Dan Lawrence on the recent tour of Sri Lanka in which England finished winless in the triangular series against India and Sri Lanka. Lawrence, who will be vice-captain at the World Cup, was England's leading scorer with 132 runs at 33 as none of the other batsmen managed 100 runs in the tournament.

Lawrence scored two centuries against Australia U-19s earlier this season and also become the third-youngest player to a score a Championship century when he made 161 against Surrey.

The 15-man squad includes considerable first-team county experience, notably Surrey's 17-year-old left-arm seamer Sam Curran who took 42 wickets in all competitions during the 2015 season, including 15 in the 50-over Royal London Cup in which Surrey reached the final.

Taylor, meanwhile, will form the front-line spin attack alongside his Hampshire team-mate Mason Crane, a legspinner who has already been talked about as a full England cricketer of the future. The squad also includes Tom Moores, the son of former England coach Peter.

David Graveney, the national performance manager and chairman of selectors, said: "We have been building towards this competition for some time and I think we're a lot further down the road than we were before the last Under-19s World Cup in Dubai two years ago. England finished third in that tournament which was a fine achievement and there is no reason why this squad could not do as well or even better than that.

"The team have spent the last three weeks in Sri Lanka and although the results were disappointing, it was a valuable learning experience against two very talented teams in conditions similar to those we expect to find in Bangladesh."

Three players who were involved in the Sri Lanka tour - Lancashire's Haseeb Hameed, Durham's Adam Hickey and Kent's Hugh Bernard - have not made the World Cup squad.

England will prepare with a week in Dubai, which includes a warm-up match against defending champions South Africa, before travelling on to Bangladesh. They begin the tournament against Fiji before further group matches against West Indies and Zimbabwe.