Indian Men’s Senior National Team will play a tri-nation friendly with Myanmar and Kyrgyz Republic in Manipur from 23 March 2023 to 28 March 2023 as part of the preparation for the AFC Men’s Asian Cup to be held next year in Qatar. The games are scheduled to be played at the Khuman Lampak Stadium in the capital of Manipur, Imphal. The senior men’s team of India was last in action in September of last year.
Squad
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Phurba Lachenpa Tempa, Amrinder Singh.
Defenders: Sandesh Jhingan, Roshan Singh, Pritam Kotal, Anwar Ali, Akash Mishra, Chinglensana Konsham, Rahul Bheke, Mehtab Singh.
Midfielders: Suresh Wangjam, Rohit Kumar, Anirudh Thapa, Brandon Fernandes, Mohammad Yasir, Ritwik Das, Jeakson Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Bipin Singh.
Forwards: Manvir Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Naorem Mahesh Singh.
Manager: Igor Stimac
The Blue Tigers trained in Kolkata in a five-day camp before traveling to Imphal for the tournament. Out of the 23 called-up for the squad, 14 reported for the camp with the players from Bengaluru FC and ATK Mohun Bagan FC making the rest of the nine joined a couple of days after the ISL final played on 18th March 2023. Eleven players were also named as the reserves of which Pritam Kotal and Naorem Mahesh Singh were called up to the main squad to replace the injured Glan Martins and Sivasakhti Narayanan. The shock exclusion from the squad has been ISL golden glove winner ATK Mohun Bagan’s Vishal Kaith with Amrinder Singh of Odisha FC preferred over him. Mehtab Singh, Naorem Mahesh Singh, Rohit Kumar and Ritwik Das are called up to the national setup for the first time. Lallianzuala Chhangte is also back in the mix after a long time on the back of an incredible season with ISL Shield Winners Mumbai City FC.
Fixtures
Wednesday 22 April 2023
India vs Myanmar - 6:00 PM
Thursday 28 April 2023
Kyrgyz Republic vs India - 5:00 PM
The Blue Tigers will begin the tri-nation friendlies against Myanmar in a clash that shares a lot of history. The first meeting between the sides happened in 1952, then Burma, when Sahu Mewalal netted a hat-trick in a 4-0 win for India. They met in the qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup in the last meeting six years ago with Sunil Chhetri scoring the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win. The captain was on target again in the reverse fixture that ended 2-2 with Jeje, who recently announced his retirement, scoring the other.
The second friendly match against the Kyrgyz Republic, 94th in the FIFA rankings, will be more of a challenge which is acknowledged by the national team manager Igor Stimac himself. Having said that, the Blue Tigers have the edge over the head-to-head battle having won three matches to two. The match against the Kyrgyz Republic was one of the crucial games in India’s qualification campaign for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. India clinched a 1-0 victory once again to a strike by Chhetri in Bengaluru in 2017. The Central Asian nation won the reverse fixture 2-1 although India already secured qualification for the 2019 Asian Cup by then.
