Young guns face off in Ashes battle

The future of Ashes cricket will be on display in Perth from Monday when Australia's under-19 side face-off with England's under-19s in a four-day match.

The match precedes a series of five one-day games before the two teams meet again for another four-day match and five more one-dayers in England in July and August.

"It's a good year for the under-19s," said Cricket Australia's National Talent Manager Greg Chappell.

"We spend a lot of time playing in the subcontinent with the under 19s but this year – and being an Ashes year it's a great time to do it – we're playing two series against England. 

"(The two teams are) very evenly matched really.

"Very similar programs, split between cricket and education.

"We played off with England in the last Under-19 World Cup for third and fourth and they beat us on the last ball of the game to pip us for third place, so there's a little bit of a rivalry developing at youth level as well."

Leading the charge for the Australians will be highly-rated batsman Jake Doran, who announced last month he would leave NSW Blues to take up a contract with Tasmania.

The left-hander, who became the youngest player to appear in a BBL game when named in the Sydney Thunder squad earlier in the summer, is in hot form too having scored a century in a practice match last week.

Another player in good form is Victorian allrounder Matt Short, who made his state debut in the Matador Cup last year and also played two BBL matches for Melbourne Renegades.

The off-spinner took 7-70 and scored 31 in the practice match, while wicketkeeper-batsman Tom Healy - son of former Test 'keeper Ian and cousin of Southern Stars wicketkeeper Alyssa - scored 48 with the bat.

The trio were part of a 24-man group that attended a talent camp at the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane last month.

"We had a team go away to Sri Lanka late last year which contained some of the players named for the English series, while there were a number of good individual efforts at the National Championships which we took into account in picking the team and the overall squad," Chappell said.

"A number of the players have also received additional exposure and experience recently through their ties to BBL clubs as community or development rookies or on the various supplementary lists.

"We'll have 24 of the best under-19 players in the country ... so it'll be two teams, and again, it's an opportunity to get them out in the middle ... playing some games.

"It'll be a chance for us to compare like for like, because it will be two teams from the same age group.

"Young Sam Grimwade, an off-spinner from Victoria who's only just 17, he's another one who's really impressed with what he's done this year.

"He played in the CA XI game in Adelaide earlier in the summer against the full Indian team and bowled against some of their Test players, and wasn't out of his depth at all.

"Those sorts of experiences are invaluable for our players."

The four-day match will be played at the WACA Ground from April 6-9 before the one-day fixtures at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School and Murdoch University later this month.

All matches will be live scored on cricket.com.au