India has finally announced its 20-member squad for the 2018 SAFF Championship in Dhaka that kicked off on Tuesday. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) was yet to name a team till Monday, with the defending champion set to play its opening game against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
READ | SAFF Championship: On tournament eve, AIFF yet to announce team
Defender Subhasish Bose will captain the side and the head coach Stephen Constantine feels the tournament is the perfect opportunity to give the youngsters some much-needed international experience, ahead of next year's AFC Asian Cup.
"Apart from Sunil (Chhetri), Jeje (Lalpekhlua) and Balwant (Singh), there are not many out-and-out strikers in India. Then comes Farukh, Manvir, Passi who have minimal international experiences so far. We need more Indian strikers and these boys have shown their potential. Regarding Passi, he'll have as much chance as anyone else to get into the AFC Asian Cup squad,” Constantine said.
“Obviously these boys have set their target to represent the senior team in future. But if we don’t provide them with opportunities, how would we be able to know about their capabilities? We have a set of confident players for the Asian Cup but we must continue developing more players for the coming days. That’s the primary challenge for these set of boys."
India's opener will be played at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Wednesday. The match is scheduled to kick-off is at 6.30pm and will be telecast live on D Sport.
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