Indian men's football squad for Asian Games 2023 announced; Chhetri included

Ace footballer Sunil Chhetri senior defender Sandesh Jhingan and firstchoice goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu were on Tuesday named in a 22member Indian mens football squad for Asian Games 2023 to be held from September 23 to October 8 in Hangzhou ChinaThe Indian squad will be under the charge of national senior team head coach Igor StimacThe All India Football Federation AIFF was bullish about sending its first team led by Sunil Chhetri and coached by Stimac to the Asian Games if they got the green light from sports ministryIt is learnt that this Indian squad has got approval from the Asian Games organisers and the Olympic Council of Asia rsquo More details httpstcoVzlDYo5P6SIndianFootball pictwittercomip9Ylh0QKSmdash Indian Football Team IndianFootball August 1 2023The participation of the Indian mens and womens football sides in the Hangzhou Games was earlier in doubt as per the sports ministrys criteria of sending teams which are ranked in top8 in the continentThe ministry later cleared both the teams by relaxing the criteria after an appeal from the AIFF Head coach Stimac had also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modis intervention in the matter stating that the team has achieved some great results in recent pastAlso Read Igor Stimac seeks Prime Ministers intervention for football teams participation at Asian Games 2023The Indian mens team are placed alongside hosts China PR Bangladesh and Myanmar in Group AThere are 23 teams who have been divided into six groups Group A B C E and F have four teams each while Group D has three teamsTwice Asian Games champions India are participating in the football event of the continental games for the first time in nine yearsThe Asian Games football competition is an Under23 affair but due to the oneyear delay in hosting this edition of the event the organisers have allowed those who are 24 years old to participate with the cutoff date of birth being fixed at January 1 1999The national football team would be returning to the Asian Games after missing the 2018 edition in JakartaThe squadGoalkeepers Gurpreet Singh Sandhu Gurmeet Singh Dheeraj Singh MoirangthemDefenders Sandesh Jhingan Anwar Ali Narender Gahlot Lalchungnunga Akash Mishra Roshan Singh Ashish RaiMidfielders Jeakson Singh Thounaojam Suresh Singh Wangjam Apuia Ralte Amarjit Singh Kiyam Rahul KP Naorem Mahesh SinghForwards Siva Sakthi Narayanan Rahim Ali Sunil Chhetri Aniket Jadhav Vikram Partap Singh Rohit DanuWith PTI inputs