Jamshedpur FC’s young forward is one of the upcoming Hero Indian Super League (ISL) stars, who has impressed national head coach Stephen Constantine and deservedly earned his place in the Indian squad for the upcoming historic friendly against the People’s Republic of China. Farukh Choudhary recently made his debut for India in the SAFF Suzuki Cup 2018 and his performances earned him a promotion up the ranks. Ahead of Saturday’s encounter, indiansuperleague.com caught up with him for an exclusive interview.

Here are the excerpts:

How has the team’s preparation been?

I think we’ve had only three training sessions and we’ve been working on our plan, which is obviously given by our coach. It’s really going well and we are looking forward to the game against China.

How excited are you to play with the senior squad?

Yes, I really had a great experience when I was in the SAFF Cup (SAFF Suzuki Cup 2018). That was a really great time for me and I’m really excited this time because that time, it was only the U-23 players but right now, I’ll be playing alongside Anas (Edathodika) bhai, Sandesh (Jhingan) bhai, (Sunil) Chhetri bhai and Jeje (Lalpekhlua) bhai, who are the senior players. So, I’m really looking forward to it and it’s really very exciting.

How helpful will your Hero ISL experience be on the international stage?

Yeah, it is obviously helpful because here, you have only one aim. In Hero ISL, we play with and against each other, but here, we play only for our country. So, it’s obviously helpful to combine well when we play together.

Are you looking forward to possibly scoring for the national team?

Playing for my country is a dream come true for me and representing 1.4 billion Indians and singing the national anthem out there is something really unbelievable, which I really can’t express to you right now. Obviously, I would love to score a goal and I give my best whenever I get on the field. We all are looking forward to giving our best and win against China.