Indian football team getting acclimatised to playing on artificial turf ahead of Afghanistan clash

Ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers match against Afghanistan, Indian team has started practising on an "artificial turf" at HTC Sports Academy here in New Delhi.

The team underwent a passing session on Saturday evening, followed by a short stretching session under strength and conditioning coach Luka Radman. The medical team was seen monitoring and taking notes on all players who were present.

Coach Igor Stimac mentioned that the match is "on artificial turf" so they need to train in similar conditions to get acclimatised as soon as possible.

"There is a long travel in front of us, a different climate and a match on an artificial pitch. We needed to train on an artificial turf to get acclimatised soon," Stimac said in an official statement.

"It's most important that we are together now and are concentrating on the upcoming games. We need to work on the players' movements and passing. These days of training will be extremely crucial in order to stay on top of our preparation against Afghanistan," he added.Adil Khan, Amrinder Singh, Sarthak Golui, Raynier Fernandes, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul Samad, Brandon Fernandes, Mandar Rao Dessai, Jackichand Singh, Manvir Singh, Seiminlen Doungel and Subhasish Bose have already reported to the camp while others will join in the next couple of days.

"It is an away game, so we have to be more cautious and utilise the opportunities that we get. We are monitoring all the players and we'll fix our strategy accordingly," Stimac said.

The squad is scheduled to depart from India on November 11. Following the game against Afghanistan on November 14, they will travel to Muscat to cross swords with Oman on November 19.