Four players from the Indian Arrows team that played in 2017-18 I-League have been called up by Stephen Constantine for the Indian national team camp set to kick-start on July 28, 2018.
Rahul KP, Prabhsukhan Gill, Rahim Ali and Suresh Singh Wangjam are the former India U-17 players who will take part in the camp. All four of these young players impressed in the league last season and have now earned their ticket to further impress national team coach Constantine.
Rahul, Rahim Ali and Suresh Singh were an integral part of Luis Norton de Matos' India U-17 team that participated in the U-17 World Cup in 2017. They were then drafted into All India Football Federation's (AIFF) developmental side Indian Arrows for the 2017-18 season of I-League. Prabhsukhan Gill came into the fray as the first choice goalkeeper after the departure of Dheeraj Singh mid-way through the season and put in a series of brilliant shifts in between the sticks.
The preparatory camp ahead of the 2018 SAFF Championship will be held in New Delhi from July 28 to August 16. The Indian team is also set to leave for an exposure trip to Australia on August 17.
As expected, head coach Stephen Constantine has opted for a U-23 squad for the camp with the 2018 SAFF Championship set to take place from September 4th to 15th. India are the defending champions of the tournament, having defeated Afghanistan in the final of the SAFF Cup at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram in 2015. This time around, India have been drawn alongside the Maldives and Sri Lanka in Group B.
Players called up for the camp in Delhi are:
GOALKEEPERS: Vishal Kaith, Kabir Thaufiq, Kamaljit Singh, Prabhsukhan Gill.
DEFENDERS: Nishu Kumar, Umesh Perambra, Davinder Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Salam Ranjan Singh, Sarthak Golui, Lalruatthara, Subhasish Bose, Jerry Lalrinzuala.
MIDFIELDERS: Vinit Rai, Germanpreet Singh, Anirudh Thapa, Rohit Kumar, Suresh Singh Wangjam, Arjun Jayaraj, Nikhil Poojari, Isaac Vanmalsawma, Nandha Kumar, Udanta Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Ashique Kuruniyan, Vignesh D, Rahim Ali.
FORWARDS: Sumeet Passi, Daniel Lahlimpuia. Hitesh Sharma, Alen Deory, Manvir Singh, Kivi Zhimomi, Rahul KP.
