India vs Afghanistan, World Cup qualifiers: Afghanistan will be playing without most key players, know why

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India will face the Afghanistan football team in their next two FIFA World Cup qualifiers games. In these two home and away games, India are the clear favourites. However, there are more than one reason behind that. India are residing at a much higher position in the FIFA rankings than Afghanistan.

However, that's not the only reason, there's also the elephant of Afghanistan's boycotting first-team players in the room. The Lions of Khorasan progressed to the second round of the World Cup qualifiers after winning two games by 1-0 margins against Mongolia in the first round.

However, as the second round rolled in, problems between the Afghanistan players and the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) started growing. Reports from the Times of India suggest that the Afghanistan players have been protesting against the federation. Additionally, they started boycotting their matches.

Around 18 players boycotted before their World Cup qualifiers matches against Kuwait and Qatar. It seems the players are continuing with the protests and boycotts. The current squad that will play India only has a few first-team players who played against Mongolia.

Ashley Westwood, who had been working in Indian football from 2013 to 2022, took charge of the Afghanistan football team last year. He only managed those two World Cup qualifier games so far. They lost both of those matches and are now sitting in last position in the Group A table.

However, the coach has been grappling with the protests and boycotts since he came aboard. Afghanistan then failed to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup, so they last played back in late November. Hence, India will have a much less experienced squad to play against.

Afghanistan Squad vs India

• Goalkeepers: Ovays Azizi, Faisal Khil, Faisal Ahmad Hamidi
• Defenders: Zohib Islam Amiri, Mosawer Ahadi, Mahboob Hanifi, Habibulla Askar, Amid Arezou, Sharif Mokhammad, Zelfagar Nzary
• Midfielders: Mustafa Azadzoy, Taufee Skandari, Jamshed Asekzai, Omid Popalzay, Jabar Sharza, Rahmat Akbari, Yama Sherzad, Siar Sadat
• Forwards: Omid Musawi, Balal Arezou, Ramien Safi, Sayeed Reza Hussaini, Fareed Sadat.