Winger Halicharan Narzary sets target to score goals in Asian Cup

Indian winger Halicharan Narzary has set his sights to score goals in the AFC Asian Cup beginning January 5 if he gets a chance to don the national jersey in the continental football showpiece event.

The 24-year-old Assamese has represented the country more than 20 times but has scored just one goal.

"As long as the goals come, it does not matter who scores. Obviously, I have not scored that many goals in the India shirt. That motivates me to work harder, and improve my scoring abilities," Narzary said.

"It's up to me to work hard, improve myself, and prove to the coach that I deserved to be in that list of 23. Now that he has selected me, I aim to score a couple of goals in the tournament. Of course, qualifying for the round of 16 is of paramount importance," he added.

India have been clubbed with Thailand, Bahrain and hosts United Arab Emirates in Group A. They open their campaign against Thailand here on January 6 before facing UAE (January 10) and Bahrain (January 14).

Asked which match in the group will be the toughest one, Narzary said, "I feel that the match against UAE will be the toughest. They are the hosts, and it is always difficult to play against a home team in a big competition.

"The crowd will be like the 12th man for them, so we will have to work even harder, in order to get a good result."