Balwant Singh denied Chinese visa as Sunil Chhetri lead India against Red Dragons
India’s 22-member squad for their upcoming fixture against China on October 13 was announced, which lacked Balwant Singh after he was denied the Chinese visa. Despite the ‘friendly’ label on the fixture, Stephen Constantine was very clear in his intent that it was far from it.
ATK striker Balwant Singh was apparently denied a Chinese visa for his passport was expiring in less than 6 months resulting in the forward getting dropped from the team. Young Sumeet Passi and Farukh Choudhary have, however, made the cut into the side.
The two sides are going to face each other after a stretch of 21 years with the Chinese dominating the head to head results, winning on 12 out of the 17 encounters. In the last meeting, which had taken place in Kochi back in the 1997 Nehru Cup, China had defeated India 2-1.
Though a friendly stature has been given to the fixture, Coach Stephen Constantine was quick to dismiss all amicable feelings on the field during the pre-departure media interaction.
“Friendly or no-friendly, it’s the India national team. It’s only a friendly game for the world but not us”, said Constantine, reported Scroll.
The 22-member squad to be headed by Sunil Chhetri is as follows:
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Karanjit Singh, Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhasish Bose, Narayan Das, Udanta Singh, Nikhil Poojary, Pronay Halder, Rowllin Borges, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Halicharan Narzary, Ashique Kuruniyan, Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sumeet Passi, Farukh Choudhary