Constantine announces 22-member squad for upcoming friendly against China

As informed by coach Constantine earlier this evening, Balwant Singh had to be dropped from the squad because of some unavoidable circumstances. As his passport will expire in less than 6 months, he was denied the Chinese Visa.

Out of the 17 face-offs between these two sides so far, the Red Dragons have won on 12 occasions. The rest of the five matches ended in a stalemate.

During the media interaction at the JLN Stadium before departure on Tuesday night, Constantine mentioned that although the match was labelled as a 'Friendly', it is a serious affair for the entire team.

"Friendly or no-friendly, it’s the India National Team. It’s only a friendly game for the world but not us."

Meanwhile, the two national teams are going to lock horns after a prolonged gap of 21 years. In the last meeting, which took place in the Nehru Cup in Kochi in 1997, China pipped India 2-1.

The 22-member squad is as follows:

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

DEFENDERS: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhasish Bose, Narayan Das.

MIDFIELDERS: Udanta Singh, Nikhil Poojary, Pronay Halder, Rowllin Borges, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Halicharan Narzary, Ashique Kuruniyan.

FORWARDS: Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sumeet Passi, Farukh Choudhary.