Dress rehearsal for India against Cambodia ahead of Asian Cup qualifiers (Preview)

The Indian football team will look to iron out the glitches and get their combinations right ahead of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup qualifiers, when they take on Cambodia in a friendly here on Wednesday.

India last played against Puerto Rico in September last year, a fixture they famously won 4-1 under the leadership of Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

Cambodia, ranked 173rd, 41 places below India (132nd), come into the tie on the back of a 7-2 thrashing at the hands of Saudi Arabia in January.

"We will be playing on an artificial turf. We would have preferred to play on grass. But we need to adjust. It is a very important match for us ahead of the crucial match against Myanmar in the AFC Cup Qualifiers. I thank AIFF for arranging the same," India coach Stephen Constantine told www.the-aiff.com.

"There are 4-5 players who are carrying slight niggles so I haven't yet decided on the starting XI. Let me see what suits us best. The weather conditions in Phnom Penh are quite similar to that in Yangon and it will be a good test for us," he added.

Goalkeeper Sandhu will be leading the side, his second consecutive match as the captain.

India would expect to start with Sandhu in goal. The defence will take the familiar shape of Sandesh Jhingan and Arnab Mondal being flanked by Pritam Kotal and Narayan Das.

Anas Edathodika could be in contention for a debut as well in place of Jhingan, who has not had the best of seasons so far with Bengaluru FC.

In the midfield, the visitors will be without the services of injured Pronay Halder with Eugeneson Lyngdoh's poor form a concern.

Last time these two sides played, India won 6-0 which is still a record for the highest margin of victory by goals for India at home.

Cambodia have been winless in their last five games. India have won their last four games straight.

--IANS

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