Presently identifying Sunil Chhetri’s successor is the biggest concern in Indian football

Keeping aside the steep rise in the FIFA rankings, India boasts of nurturing some top-quality homegrown talents in the past few years. Sandesh Jhingan is a household name nowadays, while Gurpreet Singh Sandhu won hearts with his shield-like blocking under the sticks. Playmakers like Anirudh Thapa, dual wingers Udanta Singh and Ashique Kuruniyan have all hogged the limelight as per their potential. But, if we peep at the column of proper goal scorers, the list is barren, apart from, of course, the man himself - Sunil Chhetri. With the maestro at the dusk of his career, there’s no one even close to filling his shoes once he hangs up his boots - a real concern for Indian football.

Statistically, apart from the Bangladesh game, India have always taken fewer shots than their opponents and the numbers are not even neck-to-neck, it’s agonisingly one-sided. In the five matches, the number of shots taken on target were 6, 0, 7, 3, and 1 respectively. India’s historic away draw against Qatar was the only match where the Indians failed to shoot even once inside the woodwork, while the hosts hurled in 13 shots for the same. Interestingly, Sunil Chhetri missed out on the match due to injury. India produced a great result against the Asian champions due to the excellent skills at the back, but it was far away from a good performance.

With the absence of Sunil Chhetri in the team, showing the swayed nature of India’s attacks, we surely can sense what’s coming our way. The question lies whether we have enough talent on the domestic scene to field a proper replacement, leave aside filling up the Indian skipper’s shoes with matching competency. Three of the deemed upcoming Indian centre-forwards in the domestic circuit - Manvir Singh, Sumit Passi, Jobby Justin have all been bang average so far. Even in the 2019/20 Indian Super League, the above mentioned three have scored only four goals combined. Veterans Balwant Singh and Jeje Lalpekhlua are also not getting younger by the day and would not be the most viable long-term option for the national squad. 

As far as the records are concerned, only three Indians have made it to the list of top 25 goal scorers in the last season of the Indian Super League, which includes Sunil Chhetri with nine strikes. FC Goa’s Jakichand Singh and Chennaiyin FC’s Lallianzuala Chhangte follow behind with five goals each. But, both of the above-mentioned footballers are wingers and we do not expect them to score in every match, maybe one in five games at the best. With Indian strikers misfiring big time, the clubs have enough reasons to overlook them, field-tested foreigners and win matches in a jiffy. That’s how modern Indian football works - in a no-nonsense manner.

Proper scouting remains the only solution to the problem. It would be a lie to concur with the fact of not having at least three players across the country to take up the number 9 position for the Blue Tigers. With a proper youth structure in place for each of the ISL sides and even the I-League clubs, there’s no scope for complacency. Even though the ecosystems have sprung up talents here and there, the biggest concern is that we haven’t had quality strikers in the ranks. The process needs to speed up, or else we could well see a doomed future in Indian football, with no one to shoot the ball past the goalkeeper into the net.