AFC Asian Cup: India announce final 23-member squad

India football team head coach Stephen Constantine has announced the final 23-member squad for the upcoming AFC Asian Cup in UAE next year.

Constantine stressed the need to keep on the continuity while announcing the final squad for the competition.

“It was very important to keep on the continuity. It’ll be silly of me to completely change the way we do things. Most of these boys are with us for some time now,” the British coach was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

“The other five boys (from the list of 28) will also stay with us until January 2, 2019. In case of an injury or anything else happens, these five boys will need to step up,” he added while referring to goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya, Farukh Choudhary, Lalruatthara, Manvir Singh and Lallianzuala Chhangte

“We are looking forward to the massive tournament. We hope these 23 boys will do a good job for us.”

All you need to know about India ?? ahead of the #AsianCup2019! pic.twitter.com/M67an9IpVi

— #AsianCup2019 (@afcasiancup) December 27, 2018

India, who were among the first teams to arrive in Abu Dhabi for the tournament held Oman to a goalless draw in a closed-door friendly match on Thursday. They are also set to face a local club in a second friendly match on December 30.

The Blue Tigers have been placed in Group A alongside hosts UAE, Bahrain and Thailand. They play their first match against Thailand on January 6 before taking on UAE and Bahrain on January 10 and January 14 respectively.

The final 23-member squad:

Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Amrinder Singh

Defenders: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhashish Bose, Narayan Das

Midfielders: Udanta Singh, Jackichand Singh, Germanpreet Singh, Pronay Halder, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Rowllin Borges, Ashique Kuruniyan, Halicharan Narzary

Forwards: Sumeet Passi, Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua