Bangladesh will face the hosts in a few days’ time in an AFC Asian Cup qualifier at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the eastern Indian state of Meghalaya. Ahead of the match, Indian legend Sunil Chhetri is set to don the national team jersey again, just eight months after announcing his retirement from international football. On the other hand, Hamza Chowdhury, who played for Sheffield United in the English Championship, is set to make his debut in the red-and-green jersey.
India will play a friendly match against Maldives to prepare for the AFC qualifiers against Bangladesh. The match will be the first international football match at the stadium on March 19. India coach Manolo Marquez has faced the media before this match.
It was initially known that Sunil Chhetri will play in the AFC Asian Cup qualification match against Bangladesh on March 25. Before that, India will play against Maldives on Wednesday. Will he prepare for the Bangladesh match by playing in that match? Marquez answered this in a press conference the day before the Maldives match.
India’s coach said that Sunil will play against Maldives, at least for a while. Marquez said, “Sunil will definitely play. But I can’t say right now whether he will play from the start or come on as a substitute. We can bring six substitutes in the friendly match. That is, a total of 17 footballers can play. Sunil will be among them.”
Marquez offered Sunil to come out of retirement. The highest-scoring footballer for India accepted the offer. Despite retiring from the national jersey, he played well in the ISL this season. Seeing Chhetri’s fitness, he felt that he still has the ability to play.
Marquez said, “Sunil has scored the most goals among Indian footballers in the ISL this season. It doesn’t matter if he is 20 or 40 years old. If he has fitness, he will play. Footballers cannot be made for the national team. Made footballers play for the national team. The main goal of the team is to win matches. For that, we need footballers who are in the best form and fitness.”
Although India is playing a friendly match against Maldives, Marquez is seeing this match as preparation. As a result, he is giving equal importance to it. The Indian coach said, “We are seeing this match as preparation for the Asian Cup qualification match. We want to win. We want to prepare our best team before the Bangladesh match.’ Marquez also said that he will not play the same footballers in both matches. He wants to see everyone in these two matches. Marquez said, ‘Not all those who will play against Maldives will play against Bangladesh. We cannot change the entire 11 people. However, we have confidence in everyone in the team. We want to prepare well for the Bangladesh match by playing well against Maldives.’
