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Asian Cup 2019: Pronay Halder likely to be named captain for Bahrain game

Pronay Halder will lead India in their third Group A fixture against Bahrain on Monday at the Al-Sharjah Stadium, Sharjah at the Asian Cup.

The midfielder has been a key cog in India’s midfield having started in each of the two group games against Thailand and UAE.

It is believed that coach Stephen Constantine is impressed with the ATK midfielder’s performance and impressed with his on and off the field demeanour.

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Interestingly, this will be the first time when Halder will be given captaincy of the national team.

Constantine had mentioned in his very first press conference after taking charge of the Indian national team for his second stint that he would rotate his captains. The British coach has continued with his rotational captaincy policy in the Asian Cup as well.

Pronay Halder India Puerto Rico International FriendlyAjith Namboothiri

It was Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Sunil Chhetri who were handed the captain’s armband for the opening two games against Thailand and UAE respectively.

During his brief but successful stint in charge of the Rwanda national team, he had used four separate captains over the course of eight months.

“I have rotated the captain since day one. When you have one captain you get only one voice. But if you have four captains, you get more voices from the team. We have new leaders,” Constantine had stated back in November 2018.

India are second on the Group A table with three points from two games and need at least a point in order to progress into the knockout stages of the Asian Cup.   

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