Constantine summons 13 U-23 SAFF Cup players

Thirteen U-23 players who were part of the Indian squad in the recent SAFF Cup have been summoned by head coach Stephen Constantine for a national camp here as part of the team's preparation for the international friendly against China this month.

India is slated to play China on October 13 at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, the first time the national senior team is travelling to that country to play an international match.

The two countries last met in the Nehru Cup in Kochi way back in 1997.

The 29 probables will assemble in the Capital for a 2-day camp before they leave for China on October 10.

In order to prepare for the forthcoming AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019, India is playing a few international friendly matches in the coming months and the coach has said: "these are the kind of games we need".

"China is a strong team and the match will be a tough test for us. But we need to play these sort of games right now. Getting to play under pressure is important and an away fixture in China is exactly the kind of game we need," he stated.

"Hopefully everyone stays free from injury as it's going to be an important game for the build-up to the AFC Asian Cup in January."

The Probables:

Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Amrinder Singh, Karanjeet 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, Germanpreet Singh, Anirudh Thapa, Souvik Chakraborti, Vinit Rai, Halicharan

Narzary, Bikash Jairu, Ashique Kuruniyan, Lallianzuala Chhangte.

Forwards: Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Balwant Singh, Sumeet Passi, Manvir Singh, Farukh Choudhary.

(With inputs from agencies.)