Avesh Khan, the stingy speedster

You would expect two teenage room-mates to collaborate over dinner orders and movie options. But at the Under-19 World Cup, Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed have been tasked with bringing down opposition batting line-ups and they've been doing so well that India have cruised into the quarter-finals.

The scorecards may tell you that two run-outs jolted Ireland early on. That one bowler single-handedly scripted the downfall of New Zealand. And that Nepal lost early wickets for lashing out a bit too much in their third game of the tournament. The real reason behind these wickets has been the chemistry between Avesh and Khaleel.

"We always plan things out and like to build pressure," Avesh said. "Sometimes I get wickets sometimes he gets. We say things like 'You have to build pressure if they attack me and I will build pressure if they attack you'. In the starting ten overs we try to not let the batsmen hit out. If wickets don't come we try to give less runs."

Avesh has stifled all three of the oppositions he has met with a barrage of dot balls. He has the pace to be effective off that length, gets extra bounce and is quite accurate. Nine wickets at an astonishing average of 10 and economy rate of 3.21 per over indicate his tactics have worked.

Avesh choked Ireland's openers in a stiff chase of 269 that they had to look for risky singles and were eventually run out. His opening spell read 5-1-15-0 and he picked up two wickets in the death.

India bowled second against New Zealand as well, which meant no early moisture for Avesh to work with. It didn't seem to matter because he snapped up four wickets in his opening spell, again backed by excellent fielding from his team-mates. He creates a bit of angle, gets a bit of swing, provides limited run-scoring options and finally lures the mistake. All four wickets were caught behind by the wicketkeeper or the slips.

Avesh's real strength is in putting the new ball in that off-stump corridor and then nip it around. He has a habit of angling a few into the batsmen to find the edge or the stumps. He is sharp too - according to television footage he had bowled one at 139.8 kph against Pakistan in the last World Cup.

"The team's plan is to bowl dots in the beginning if we aren't getting any wickets," Avesh said. "We want to give as little runs as possible in the first 10 overs. With the help of that plan only we get wickets. I try to bowl according to the batsman. These are slow wickets so if I offer too much pace to the batsmen, it will make things easier for them."

His first spells have done the trick so far, but in case they don't, Avesh comes back with the older ball and some variations - the bouncers, cutters and some length adjustments.

"I try to vary my pace and focus on bouncers too. I try offcutters, legcutters, slower balls and not the kind of length balls I try with the new ball."

Avesh is one of the three India players, along with Sarfaraz Khan and Ricky Bhui, who played the last World Cup in the UAE. Seventeen then, Avesh played two matches and claimed only one wicket. Now, he has returned as the leader of the attack with first-class experience and a lot of advice from seniors.

Avesh made his first-class debut for Madhya Pradesh in December 2014 and shared the new ball with "Ishwar [Pandey] bhaiyya". "I wasn't that experienced in 2014," Avesh said. "Now I have played in Ranji [Trophy] and have spoken to some big players, so this time I'm more confident and I'm feeling positive. I'm backing myself this time to do well."

According to Avesh's childhood coach Amay Khurasiya, the main things he has learned from first-class cricket was how to handle pressure and adjust his lengths.

"Good thing about first-class [performances] is that it tells you where you stand immediately at the higher level," Khurasiya told ESPNcricinfo. "For a 17-year-old boy to bowl in first-class cricket was a big thing. He bowled many overs but he was never taken apart. He withstood the pressure and picked wickets. That was very important for him because wickets give you confidence. Not going for too many runs also means you are bowling to a plan and he learnt to keep the ball a little more up. The transition from Under-19 to Ranji can take quite a lot of toll out of you. This boy is good at handling pressure."

Avesh was first spotted by Khurasiya as a 13-year-old at an MPCA trial. Avesh, then part of the Indore Colts Cricket Club, had been one of 500 other aspirants and got to bowl only two-odd overs.

"He bowled around 12-15 balls in that particular net session and most of them were outside leg or way outside of," Khurasiya reminisced. "When he was being asked to bowl outside off it was way outside off. But as a 13-year-old kid he was very nippy and got good bounce. So he could surprise with whatever balls he could keep on the stumps, which were very rare. I could see that there was huge potential in him to be a quick bowler. Only Avesh made it to the academy and from thereon he has worked very hard."

In 2015, Avesh started opening the bowling for India Under-19s and raised some eyebrows in a tri-series match against Bangladesh in Kolkata. He picked a wicket in each of his first four overs and finished with magical figures of 6-3-4-4. The Bangladesh batting line-up that shone against Nepal on Friday had scores of 0, 1, 7, 9 and 0.

India's third medium-pacer Rahul Batham is also from the MPCA Academy and coached by Khurasiya. Batham has been India's most economical bowler so far by conceding only 36 runs from the 12 overs he has bowled in two matches. With so much familiarity breeding in India's pace bowlers, Namibia will have their task cut out pulling off a second upset on Saturday in Fatullah.