Categories: Sports

New Coach, New Vibe: Khalid Jamil Assembles 22 Players For Bengaluru Bootcamp

The beginning of a new era is marked by the exclusion of famous striker Sunil Chhetri from the team chosen from a 35 man likely to travel list. Twenty two players are now training, and thirteen more will join after the Durand Cup is over.

Published by Namrata Boruah
Published: August 16, 2025 15:23:35 IST

The senior men National Football Team of India has commenced preparation officially seeking the 2025 CAFA Nations Cup, 22 players have come to report to their first camp by head coach Khalid Jamil, which is based in Bengaluru as of August 15, 2025. The camp started on August 16 and it was important to ammo the Blue Tigers now as the team was soon to engage in international matches.

Recently signing a two year contract, that can be extended to lead the senior team, Jamil had made a list of 35 probables but only those players who are not playing the Durand Cup have them in the camp until now. The other 13 who are active in Durand Cup matches will join it later when their club commitments get over.

The 22 reported players divide into a distribution of positions

Goalkepers: Amrinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Hrithik Tiwari

Defenders: Akash Mishra, Boris Singh Thangjam, Chinglensana Singh Konsham, Hmingthanmawia Ralte, Rahul Bheke, Roshan Singh Naorem, Sandesh Jhingan, Sunil Benchamin & Alex Saji.

Midfielders : Ashique Kuruniyan, Danish Farooq Bhat, Nikhil Prabhu, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Suresh Singh Wangjam, Udanta Singh Kumam.

Forwards: Irfan Yadwad, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Rahim Ali, Vikram Partap Singh.

The camp itself serves as a preparation option towards the strategy being adopted by Jamil to ensure that the team is groomed to participate in the CAFA Nations Cup that is expected to kick-start in Tajikistan later in August. In the group stage, India will play against Tajikistan (August 29), Iran (September 1) and Afghanistan (September 4) and third place match and final would be played September 8 in Hisor and Tashkent respectively.

This is not the only tournament as the camp also has the purpose of preparing the squad towards the AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers against Singapore, which will be held on October 9 and 14. The AIFF has requested the state of all the clubs to release their national team players well in time praising Jamshedpur FC to have released their player at the first instance which the federation termed a national interest gesture.

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