The Indian team will take on Cambodia in Phnom Penh on March 22 before clashing swords with Myanmar on March 28 in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers.
After turning out for different clubs in the Indian Super League (ISL) as well as the I-League, India's cream of football players are gearing up to get back to representing the country again, training intensely at the Andheri Sports Complex here.
The Indian team will take on Cambodia in Phnom Penh on March 22 before clashing swords with Myanmar on March 28 in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers.
While football fans across the country are dreaming about India playing the FIFA World Cup in the future, India captain Sunil Chhetri said the team's primary objective right now should to be to the cut in the Asian circuit.
"We talk about playing in the World Cup but if we have to better ourselves, this is a big benchmark, this is the real one," Chhetri said about qualifying for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup here on Thursday.
"This is massive as we have a chance to qualify for the most important tournament in Asia, the 2019 Asia Cup. It's very important to qualify for such big tournaments," he added.
One of the biggest banes in Indian football is lack of quality matches against quality teams around the world, and Chhetri once against reiterated the importance of playing friendlies regularly against higher-ranked teams.
"We have more chances if we play more. It's very important to play friendlies. When you play a better opponent (and) even if you lose, you tend to learn and improve more.
"If you play well against big teams, then you can attract bigger teams to play friendlies. We haven't played well away from home and we would like to improve on that," Chhetri said.
The 32-year-old striker, however, said this team coached by Stephen Constantine has improved by leaps and bounds over the last couple of years.
"I have seen huge improvement over the past two years. Jeje Lalpekhlua has been prolific. Senior players moving on was not by choice, but coach wanted to have a bigger pool to choose from and it worked out quite well," Chhetri said.
The skipper lavished more praise on the in-form striker.
"Jeje has been outstanding. Jeje has performed really well for his ISL club (Chennaiyin FC), I-League club (Mohun Bagan) and also for the country. Jeje knows his game pretty well and understands what works for him. All upcoming players are doing really well and it adds to the bench strength," he said.
Chhetri also had specials words for Robin Singh. "Robin Singh is an asset to the side. He has got potential and can go a long way. The way he plays is effortless and can only get better. It's very easy for him (Robin) to score goals," he said.
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