Malaysia has finally released their call-up list for the joint 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup qualification, a week after Indonesia has done theirs. Cheng Hoe has named a bigger than usual squad with an eye to give an opportunity to players to stake a claim for places in the final 23-man squad.
Only 18 of the 23 players that were in the squad that defeated Timor Leste in the Preliminary Round One were retained as the national team head coach looks to improves the squad with players who have performed well in the domestic schedule in recent weeks.
Syazwan Andik (Johor Darul Ta'zim), Syazwan Zainon (Selangor), Kenny Pallraj (Perak), Zarif Irfan (PKNS FC) and Faisal Halim (Pahang) are the ones dropped from the squad despite being part of the team that achieved a 12-2 aggregate win over Timor Leste in June.
Two players who were in the team that finished runnersup in the 2018 AFF Championship were given a recall back to the team following their recovery from injuries - Hafizul Hakim (Perak) and Syahmi Safari (Selangor). There was also a return to the fold for Nazirul Naim (Perak) and Hazwan Bakri (JDT).
Zulhilmi Zainal
Cheng Hoe opted to offer a return for Hadin Azman (Felda United), who last featured for Malaysia in Airmarine Cup. Perak's duo Brendan Gan and J. Partiban were rewarded with their sterling performances for Perak in their run to the Malaysia Cup and both are first timers in Cheng Hoe's squad.
Precocious central midfielder Danial Amier (Felda United) whose last assignment with the national team was with the Under-23 when he limped out of the tournament after only the first match gets his first ever senior call-up. His team mate in the U23 in Jafri Chew also earned himself a call-up following conitinuous starts for PKNS lately.
Five players in Syazwan Andik, Khairulazhan Khalid (Selangor), Amirul Azhan (Perak), Rawilson Batuil (Sabah) and Azzizan Nordin (Sabah) are placed in the back-up list in case any of the first 27 players drop out due to injury. The players will assemble this Sunday (August 25) to prepare for the international friendly match against Jordan on August 30.
Full squad:
Goalkeeper: Farizal Marlias, Hafizul Hakim, Ifwat Akmal
Defender: Adam Nor Azlin, La'Vere Corbin-Ong, Nazirul Naim, Matthew Davies, Syahmi Safari, Shahrul Saad, Irfan Zakaria, Dominic Tan
Midfieder: Danial Amier, Akram Mahinan, Faiz Nasir, Nor Azam Azih, Brendan Gan, Syamer Kutty Abba
Forward: J. Partiban, Syafiq Ahmad, Safawi Rasid, Akhyar Rashid, Hazwan Bakri, Shahrel Fikri, Mohamadou Sumareh, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha, Hadin Azman, Jafri Chew
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