Indian coach Igor Stimac has squared down on the 23-man squad he will be leading in Thailand at the King’s Cup that starts on June 5. ATK forward Jobby Justin, who shot to fame for his stellar performance last season for East Bengal, was one of two players released along with Bengaluru FC’s Nishu Kumar.
Stimac had initially called up 37 players for the national camp that was held at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Among the first batch of players that he let go were Vishal Kaith, Germanpreet Singh, Nandha Kumar, Redeem Tlang, Bikramjit Singh and Sumeet Passi.
Among the next set of players he let go were Narayan Das, Salam Ranjan Singh, Dhanpal Ganesh, Rowllin Borges and Komal Thatal. In addition, central defender Anwar Ali (Jr) was released owing to an injury. His final deletions from the squad were Justin and Nishu.
India 23-member squad:
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Kamaljit Singh
Defenders: Pritam Kotal, Rahul Bheke, Sandesh Jhingan, Adil Khan, Subhasish Bose
Midfielders: Udanta Singh, Jackichand Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Raynier Fernandes, Pronay Halder, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul Samad, Amarjit Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Michael Soosairaj
Forwards: Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Farukh Choudhary, Manvir Singh