Igor Stimac names 23-men India squad for SAFF Championship 2021

Sandesh Jhingan misses out due to his duties with Croatian club HNK Sibenik.

India Head Coach Igor Stimac has named a 23-member squad for the forthcoming SAFF Championship 2021, which kicks off in the Maldives from October 1 onwards. The final of the championship is slated for October 16.

The players and the support staff will assemble in Bengaluru tomorrow (Monday, September 27), and will fly out to the Maldives the next day. Stimac, and other members of the technical staff will join the squad directly in Maldives on the same day.

Besides India, hosts Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are the other teams in the Championship. Each team will play each other once with the top two teams qualifying for the final.

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“We are all looking forward to the SAFF Championship as the leading football country in this part of Asia. These 4-5 games are extremely crucial for us as we won’t have any other chance of getting together before the start of 3rd round AFC Asian Cup qualifiers next season. So these matches should help us to improve a few points in our game," Stimac said.

The Blue Tigers have won the SAFF Championship (formerly SAARC Cup) seven times – 1993 in Lahore, 1997 in Kathmandu, 1999 in Margao, 2005 in Karachi, 2009 (U23 squad) in Dhaka, 2011 in New Delhi), 2015-16 in Thiruvananthapuram.

India begin their campaign against Bangladesh on October 4.

Following are India’s fixtures in the group stage:

• Bangladesh vs India (October 4, IST 4:30pm).
• India vs Sri Lanka (October 7, IST 4:30pm).
• Nepal vs India (October 10, IST 8:30pm).
• India vs Maldives (October 13, IST 8:30pm).

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The list of 23 probables is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh, Dheeraj Singh and Vishal Kaith.

Defenders: Pritam Kotal, Seriton Fernandes, Chinglensana Singh, Rahul Bheke, Subhasish Bose and Mandar Rao Dessai.

Midfielders: Udanta Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Lalengmawia, Anirudh Thapa, Sahal Abdul Samad, Jeakson Singh, Glan Martins, Suresh Singh, Liston Colaco and Yasir Mohammad.

Forwards: Manvir Singh, Rahim Ali, Sunil Chhetri and Farukh Choudhary.

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