Abu Dhabi, Dec 27 (IANS): Indian football team coach Stephen Constantine on Thursday announced his squad of 23 members for Indias campaign in the forthcoming Asian Cup football tournament.
India play their first match against Thailand on January 6, with matches against hosts UAE and Bahrain slotted for January 10 and January 14, respectively.
Constantine said: "It was very important to keep on the continuity. It'll be silly of me to completely change the way we do things. Most of these boys are with us for some time now."
"The other five boys (from the list of 28) will also stay with us until January 2. In case of an injury or anything else happens, these five boys will need to step up," he added.
"We are looking forward to the massive tournament. We hope these 23 boys will do a good job for us."
India were the first among the 23 visiting teams to arrive in Abu Dhabi on December 20.
A 28-member squad had travelled here and has been practicing in an effort to acclimatize themselves to the conditions.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Amrinder Singh.
Defenders: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhashish Bose, Narayan Das.
Midfielders: Udanta Singh, Jackiechand Singh, Germanpreet Singh, Pronay Halder, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Rowllin Borges, Ashique Kuruniyan, Halicharan Narzary.
Forwards: Sumeet Passi, Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhteri, Jeje Lalpekhlua.