Indian football to start preparations for WC qualifier on Monday

The Indian football team will kick off their preparations for the 2018 World Cup qualifier against continental powerhouse Iran at the DSK Dream City here on Monday.

National coach Stephen Constantine, who has called up 28 players for the camp, is hopeful of producing a fighting performance against the top-ranked team in Asia.

Prior to hosting Iran at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on September 8, India will play a practice match against Nepal on August 31 at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune.

"I expect 28 boys to turn up, ready to represent their Country. It's a very important game for us as are all the games with the National Team," Constantine told the-aiff.com.

"We also have a friendly against Nepal and that will help us prepare better," he said.

India face an uphill task in their attempt to make the grade for the 2018 World Cup after losing their second Group D encounter 2-1 away to minnows Guam in June. They had earlier lost by a similar margin to Oman.

Constantine paid a visit to the training site along with his support staff on Monday and praised the facilities provided by the DSK authorities.

"I have travelled around the country in the last six months trying to find accommodation, a training pitch and a stadium in one place. Sadly, however, I haven't been able to find many.

"There's a huge requirement that we have a national training centre and even as we are currently looking at possible places, the DSK Academy offers us everything, or more than what we require," he said.

"Here we have pitches and facilities in one campus and the distances that we have to cover are super excellent and so much convenient. I want to thank the DSK authorities for putting Indian football on their priority list."

The probables:

Goalkeepers: Subrata Paul, Karanjit Singh, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Arindam Bhattacharya, Sanjiban Ghosh.

Defenders: Arnab Mondal, Sandesh Jhingan, Aiborlang Khongjee, Dhanachandra Singh, Lalchhuanmawia, Narayan Das, Rino Anto, Pritam Kotal.

Midfielders:Dhanapal Ganesh, Eugenson Lyngdoh, Cavin Lobo, Sehnaj Singh, Jackichand Singh, Pronoy Halder, Brandon Fernandes, Francis Fernandes, C.K. Vineeth, Rowlin Borges, Romeo Fernandes.

Forwards: Halicharan Narzary, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Robin Singh, Sunil Chhetri.