A 20-member Indian football team, led by star striker Bhaichung Bhutia, will leave for Thailand on Saturday to play two warm-up matches next week, in preparation for the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad.
The fixtures against the Thai national team on October 14 and 16 are expected to give the Indians much needed competitive exposure and practice before their matches against the likes of Cameroon and Iran in the Afro-Asian Games.
The football event gets under way on October 21.
Four key players -- Debjit Ghosh, Deepak Mondal, Alvito D'Cunha and Sameer Naik -- have been ruled out due to injury, according to national chief coach Stephen Constantine, who held practice sessions for the team at the ongoing camp which started in Bangalore early this week.
The team:
Goalkeepers: Sangram Mukherjee, Sandip Nandy.
Defenders: Mahesh Gawli, M Suresh, Arun Malhotra, Selwyn Fernandes, Satish Kumar Bharti.
Midfielders: Jo Paul Ancheri, Climax Lawrence, Renedy Singh, K Ajayan, James Singh, Tomba Singh, S Venkatesh.
Forwards: Jatin Bisht, Sukhwinder Singh, I M Vijayan, Bhaichung Bhutia, Ashim Biswas, Abhishek Yadav.
Chief coach: Stephen Constantine.
Assistant coach: Aloke Mukherjee.