Indian men’s football team head coach Igor Stimac has called up a total of 43 players for the national team camp ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup joint second-round Qualifier against Qatar. The match, which is scheduled to be played on 26th March at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, will be India’s sixth encounter in the on-going Qualifiers.

Players will be arriving in two batches for the national team camp, given some of them will be engaged with club duties in the knockout phase of the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20. Initially, 23 players will be joining Stimac on 9th March, with the remaining 20 arriving a week later on 16th March.

In the first batch, youngsters like Shubham Sarangi, Jeakson Singh, Lalengmawia, Jerry Mawihmingthanga and Liston Colaco have been rewarded for their fine performances in the Hero ISL and will be keen to grasp their opportunity. Usual suspects like Rowllin Borges, Amarjit Singh and Adil Khan are also named by Stimac and will be among those joining him on 9th March. Sandesh Jhingan, meanwhile, has also been picked by the Croatian despite not having played a single minute for Kerala Blasters FC in the Hero ISL 2019-20 due to an injury, and the same goes for Chennaiyin FC’s Jeje Lalpekhlua.

The second batch of players, who will arrive on 16th March, include names like Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Rahul Bheke, Pritam Kotal, Brandon Fernandes, Edwin Vanspaul, Anirudh Thapa, Sunil Chhetri and Manvir Singh. Given their fine performances in the Hero ISL 2019-20 season, ATK FC trio Prabir Das, Sumit Rathi and Michael Soosairaj have also been called up to the national team camp. 

Players arriving on 9th March:

Goalkeepers: Amrinder Singh, Subhasish Roy, Rafique Ali

Defenders: Pratik Chaudhari, Shubham Sarangi, Subhasish Bose, Narender, Adil Khan, Sandesh Jhingan

Midfielders: Rowllin Borges, Amarjit Singh, Jeakson Singh, Nandhakumar Sekar, Lalengmawia, Vinit Rai, Raynier Fernandes, Nikhil Poojary, Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Halicharan Narzary, Sahal Abdul Samad

Forwards: Farukh Choudhary, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Liston Colaco 

Players arriving on 16th March:

Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Prabhsukhan Singh Gill

Defenders: Prabir Das, Rahul Bheke, Pritam Kotal, Nishu Kumar, Sumit Rathi, Seriton Fernandes, Mandar Rao Dessai

Midfielders: Edwin Sydney Vanspaul, Brandon Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Udanta Singh, Ashique Kuruniyan, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Jackichand Singh

Forwards: Sunil Chhetri, Manvir Singh, Michael Soosairaj

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2019-2020