Coach Stephen Constantine announced his 22-member squad for India’s first-ever International fixture in China which is scheduled at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Suzhou City on October 13, 2018. Kick-off is at IST 17:05 Hrs.
As informed by coach Constantine earlier this evening, Balwant Singh had to be dropped from the squad because of some unavoidable circumstances. As his passport will expire in less than 6 months, he was denied the Chinese Visa.
Out of the 17 face-offs between these two sides so far, the Red Dragons have won on 12 occasions. The rest of the five matches ended in a stalemate.
During the media interaction at the JLN Stadium before departure on Tuesday night, Constantine mentioned that although the match was labelled as a ‘Friendly’, it is a serious affair for the entire team.
“Friendly or no-friendly, it’s the India National Team. It’s only a friendly game for the world but not us.”
Meanwhile, the two national teams are going to lock horns after a prolonged gap of 21 years. In the last meeting, which took place in the Nehru Cup in Kochi in 1997, China pipped India 2-1.
The 22-member squad is as follows:
GOALKEEPERS: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Karanjit Singh.
DEFENDERS: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhasish Bose, Narayan Das.
MIDFIELDERS: Udanta Singh, Nikhil Poojary, Pronay Halder, Rowllin Borges, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Halicharan Narzary, Ashique Kuruniyan.
FORWARDS: Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sumeet Passi, Farukh Choudhary.
Courtesy : AIFF Media Team
