Head Coach of the Indian Football Men’s national team, Igor Stimac, has handed call ups to Forty-three players for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers as well as the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.

India will play against Qatar on 26th March in Bhubaneswar, Kalinga stadium. The invited players will come into camping in two different batches.

This is as a result of the involvement of some of the players in the Indian Super League (ISL) knockout stage, and the first set of players, which include 23 players will open camp on 9th March.

The rest of the called up players will join in on the 16th March. India are placed fourth on the five-team group E with Qatar, Oman, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.

The game against Qatar will be India’s sixth game in the group as they have played 5 games so far, and India has only managed three points from the five games played.

This includes three draws and two losses with the first leg of the game against Qatar ending 0-0 on 10th September 2019.

The Blue Tigers are out of contention for a place at the World Cup having scored 3 goals and conceded five in 5 games played.

INVITED PLAYERS

Goalkeepers: Amrinder Singh, Subhasish Roy, Rafique Ali, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Prabhsukhan Singh Gill

Defenders: Pratik Chaudhari, Shubham Sarangi, Subhasish Bose, Narender, Adil Khan, Sandesh Jhingan, Prabir Das, Rahul Bheke, Pritam Kotal, Nishu Kumar, Sumit Rathi, Seriton Fernandes, Mandar Rao Dessai

Midfielders: Rowllin Borges, Amarjit Singh, Jeakson Singh, Nandhakumar Sekar, Lalengmawia, Vinit Rai, Raynier Fernandes, Nikhil Poojary, Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Halicharan Narzary, Sahal Abdul Samad, Edwin Sydney Vanspaul, Brandon Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Udanta Singh, Ashique Kuruniyan, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Jackichand Singh

Forwards: Farukh Choudhary, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Liston Colaco Sunil Chhetri, Manvir Singh, Michael Soosairaj.

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu