Jobby Justin & Mandar Rao Desai inclusions headline India's Hero Intercontinental Cup 2019 squad

The Blue Tigers will look to defend the title they won in the inaugural edition of the tournament last year.

Indian National Team Head Coach Igor Stimac named a list of 25 for India’s campaign in the forthcoming Hero Intercontinental Cup slated to kick-off at the EKA Arena, Ahmedabad from July 7.

Defending champions India take on Tajikistan in their first match on the opening day, while Syria and DPR Korea are the other two participating teams. All teams will play each other once with the top two making it to the final. All matches kick-off at 8pm.

Stiman stated that “all players worked really hard at the preparatory camp in Mumbai.”

Inside view: EKA Arena by TransStadia

“We are satisfied with the execution of work for the past ten days,” he informed. “The players worked really hard, and we are all very enthusiastic about our upcoming games,” he added.

Indian Arrows defender Narender Gahlot was named in the list along with Mandar Rao Desai. The list will be cut down to 23 prior to the kick-off of the tournament. The Blue Tigers land in Ahmedabad tomorrow (July 8, 2019).

This is the first time Gujarat is hosting a Senior Men’s International competition. Tickets for all matches are up for sale at http://bit.ly/HICTickets

Stimac, who coached Croatia to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 expressed, “all our work has been programmed to get us in form for the qualifiers.” The Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers kick-off in September, the draw for which is slated for later this month.

“Once again, I will use the upcoming games in the tournament to have a look at all the players in action. Each one of them deserve the chance,” the Coach explained.

Stimac had summoned a list of 35 players for the preparatory camp in Mumbai which had kicked-off in Mumbai on June 25. The 10 players who were released include Vishal Kaith, Nishu Kumar, Salam Ranjan Singh, Sarthak Golui, Anwar Ali, Raynier Fernandes, Michael Soosairaj, Nikhil Poojary, Jackiechand Singh, and Balwant Singh, while Ashique Kuruniyan was earlier released from the camp.

The list of 25 stay as follows:

GOALKEEPERS: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Kamaljit Singh.

DEFENDERS: Pritam Kotal, Rahul Bheke, Sandesh Jhingan, Adil Khan, Anas Edathodika, Narender Gahlot, Subhasish Bose, Jerry Lalrinzuala.

MIDFIELDERS: Udanta Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Pronay Halder, Rowllin Borges, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul, Amarjit Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Mandar Rao Desai.

FORWARDS: Jobby Justin, Sunil Chhetri, Farukh Choudhary, Manvir Singh.