Six players dropped from Indian football team squad for March international window 2025

Stalwarts Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Anirudh Thapa were dropped from the Indian football team.

Indian football team head coach Manolo Marquez popped up a few surprises in his latest 26-man squad for the upcoming matches in the March international break. The biggest surprise was the news that Sunil Chhetri is coming back from international retirement and will spearhead the Indian attack for the matches.

Chhetri’s return has become the major talking point for most fans, but there are some notable absences from the squad too. The Spanish gaffer has opted to make some bold choices in leaving out experienced campaigners to give more ‘fresh’ faces a chance to impress on the international stage.

In doing so, he has dropped some relatively big names from the Indian football team squad for the upcoming matches against Maldives and Bangladesh. Here we look at the six Indian players dropped by Marquez from the national squad.

6. Edmund Lalrindika

The Indian football team’s struggles with goals have been well documented in recent months. Despite that, Marquez has opted to exclude Edmund Lalrindika from the squad for the upcoming matches. This is even though the 25-year-old has proven his quality as a dangerous figure in the final third in the past.

Lalrindika has five goal contributions (two goals, three assists) in 12 I-League games in the 2024-25 season. He even produced some lively cameos for India in the final matches of 2024, showing promise in being able to excel against foreign defenders. Despite that, he’s now been dropped and must improve his goal-scoring efficiency to get back into the squad.

5. Jay Gupta

Jay Gupta emerged as a favourite for Manolo Marquez in 2024 after enjoying an impressive 2023-24 season with FC Goa. He even made three appearances for Indian football team, looking sturdy and proactive in that left-back role. But those days now seem a thing of the past. Gupta has seen himself dropped from the India squad and only has himself to blame.

In 16 ISL appearances, he’s only helped the Gaurs to one clean sheet this season. He’s only made 10 tackles, 4 interceptions and won 6 aerial duels in these outings, often getting outwitted and embarrassed by wingers. It’s clear that the 23-year-old must rediscover his defensive resolve to win back Marquez’s confidence.

4. Vibin Mohanan

Vibin Mohanan was given his Indian football team debut by Manolo Marquez in the 1-1 draw against Malaysia in November (2024). The 22-year-old actually enjoyed a pretty solid 2024-25 ISL campaign with Kerala Blasters, being one of their better players. Indeed, Mohanan has averaged 39 passes per game (with an 86% accuracy) and also made 89 possession recoveries as well as 61 clearances in 18 ISL games.

Despite proving his qualities in distributing possession and protecting his backline with his hard-working nature, Mohanan wasn’t able to impress the India gaffer and has been dropped from the squad.

3. Anirudh Thapa

One of the biggest surprises from the latest Indian football team squad announcement was the absence of national team regular Anirudh Thapa. The 27-year-old has made 58 appearances for India since his debut in 2017, but his style doesn’t seem to suit Marquez’s thinking. Thapa has been snubbed from the squad for the second consecutive international window, despite playing pretty well for Mohun Bagan in their 2024-25 Indian Super League (ISL) league shield winning season, grabbing two assists in 14 appearances.

What has probably cost Thapa a place in the India squad is his recent injury spell that forced him to miss seven ISL games for Mohun Bagan. It’s clear he needs to be fitter and more consistent with his performances to regain a spot in the India squad.

2. Jithin MS

Jithin MS has been enjoying a prolific 2024-25 season under Juan Pedro Benali’s system at NorthEast United and been one of the best Indian performers in the campaign. He has six goals and eight assists in 28 appearances in the campaign, out of which seven goal contributions (two goals, five assists) are in 22 ISL appearances. The 26-year-old has prove himself as a genuine goal outlet. He’s also hard-working player who covers a lot of ground and contributes defensively.

Jithin is also a versatile player able to play in multiple roles, but still hasn’t been able to stir Manolo Marquez’s confidence. The gaffer gave Jithin MS his India debut in the draw against Malaysia in the November game, but has surprisingly snubbed him this time. The Blue Tigers are likely to miss the positive energy levels of the NorthEast United star in the upcoming matches.

1. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu

The biggest talking point about the current India squad selection is that Gurpreet Singh Sandhu has been left out of the squad. This is the first time Gurpreet has been left out of an Indian football team squad for a major international break since August 2017. The 33-year-old, however, has himself to blame. Despite getting seven clean sheets in 22 ISL games this season, he’s made way too many mistakes across the campaign.

Gurpreet made a schoolboy error in gifting Malaysia a goal in the 1-1 draw in the previous international break. After that, he carried a shaky form to the ISL as he regularly made poor mistakes to gift goals to Bengaluru FC’s opponents and caused them to drop out of the ISL league shield race.

Gurpreet has to take this as a lesson to reinvent himself and become more reliable to earn back his spot as the India no.1.

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