Asian Games: Liston Colaco to travel along with two other replacements
India announced their revised squad (men's) for the Asian Games on Wednesday.
The Asian Games is just around the corner and Indian athletes from different sports are gearing up in full swing. But, things are not so similar with the Indian national men’s football team.
The Blue Tigers are not in a very favourable situation and are currently under a lot of chaos. With ISL clubs refusing to release their key players for the Asiad, Igor Stimac has been forced to put together a new second-string contingent for the continental tournament.
The matter has become so serious that Indian skipper Sunil Chhetri had to himself make an appeal to all the clubs to release as many players as possible.
Keeping all of that aside, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has registered a 17-member team which will represent India at the Asian Games after nine years. The second-string team included the likes of Gurmeet Singh, Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem, Sumit Rathi, Narender Gahlot, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Samuel James, Rahul KP, Abdul Rabeeh Anjukandan, Ayush Dev Chhetri, Bryce Miranda, Azfar Noorani, Rahim Ali, Vincy Bareto, Sunil Chhetri, Rohit Danu, Gurkirat Singh and Aniket Jadhav.
The young guns will be led by India’s main man Sunil Chhetri in Hangzhou, China.
Changes to the squad
On 14 September, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced a revised list of Indian athletes who will take part in the Asian Games. The list included 22 new athletes while 25 replacements have also been made including players, coaches and support staff.
In football, the ministry has replaced Bengaluru FC’s Rohit Danu with FC Goa’s Ayush Chhetri. FC Goa’s first choice keeper Dheeraj Singh has made way for Mohun Bagan’s Liston Colaco. And the other change is that Lalengmawia (Apuia) has missed out on the squad list as keeper Vishal Yadav comes in.
The team looks decent on paper, but the lack of experience of playing together might haunt them. Nonetheless, let us wait and watch as things unfold.
Yash has been involved in the Indian Football circuit since his school days. He has been covering various sports since 2020 and has also covered a couple of on-ground events, including the 2022 FIFA U17 Women's World Cup in Odisha.