India vs China: Sandesh Jhingan to captain India against China

Bengaluru, October 12: Sandesh Jhingan will don the captain's armband when India take on PR China in an International Friendly at the picturesque Suzhou Olympic Stadium in Suzhou City on Saturday (October 13).

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At the official pre-match press conference Coach Stephen Constantine said: "I think the captain has to reflect the attitude of the coach. Sandesh first played for me four years ago. He is a fighter and a leader. He gives everything on the pitch which most of the players do."

"I think he is going to be one of the leaders for India going forward. Keeping the magnitude of the game in mind, I believe he deserves to lead the team," he added.

@SandeshJhingan will don the captain's armband when @IndianFootball take on PR China in an International Friendly on Saturday. #BackTheBlue #WeAreIndia pic.twitter.com/RRJ67XDsqq

— Football Counter (@football_countr) October 12, 2018

The newly-appointed skipper thanked the coach for believing in him and handing the captain's armband to him. "Thank you Coach for entrusting me with the responsibility. As an Indian boy it was always my dream to represent the country. It's a great feeling that I can't actually express in words," he stated.

He further added: "In Chhetri-bhai, Gurpeet, Jeje - we have a group of leaders which makes my job easy. We all work together to achieve the goal. The plan for tomorrow is to stick to the plan and give our best on the pitch. If we are able to do that the result will follow. We're really looking forward to playing in this beautiful stadium."

This is the first meeting among the two teams since they last played in the Nehru Cup in Kochi in 1997. India are yet to win a single match against PR China in the 17 encounters played between the two countries so far.

INDIA SQUAD:

GOALKEEPERS: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Karanjit Singh.

DEFENDERS: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhasish Bose, Narayan Das.

MIDFIELDERS: Udanta Singh, Nikhil Poojary, Pronay Halder, Rowllin Borges, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Halicharan Narzary, Ashique Kuruniyan.

FORWARDS: Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sumeet Passi, Farukh Choudhary.

Match kicks off on Saturday (October 13) at 5:05 pm IST

Live on Star Sports 1, 2, 3 and 1 Tamil

Live Streaming on Hotstar, Jio TV

Source: AIFF