India announces 23-member squad for AFC Asian Cup to be held in UAE

Indian football team coach Stephen Constantine on Thursday announced the final 23-member squad for AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.

"It was very important to keep on the continuity. It will be silly of me to completely change the way we do things. Most of these boys are with us for some time now," the coach said.

"The other five boys (from the earlier list of 28) will also stay with us until January 2, 2019. In case of an injury or anything else happens, these five boys will need to step up. We are looking forward to the massive tournament. We hope these 23 boys will do a good job for us," he added.

Following are the 23-member squad for the upcoming prestigious tournament:

Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Amrinder Singh

Defenders: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhashish Bose, Narayan Das

Midfielders: Udanta Singh, Jackichand Singh, Germanpreet Singh, Pronay Halder, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Rowllin Borges, Ashique Kuruniyan, Halicharan Narzary

Forwards: Sumeet Passi, Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua

India have been drawn in Group A along with hosts UAE, Thailand and Bahrain. The Blue Tigers will play their first match against Thailand on January 6, followed by face-off with UAE and Bahrain on January 10 and January 14 respectively.

-ANI