India vs Jordan International Friendly: The unpicked Indian XI
Stephen Constantine announced a 30-man probable squad for India's International friendly against Jordan. While he did reward some players who performed exceptionally well in the ISL like Jackichand Singh and Nishu Kumar, the Englishman excluded a lot of them too. Furthermore, his tryst of including a lot of underperforming players like Manvir Singh and Bikash Jairu continued.
One ought to note that the Oman friendly following it would be the last international friendly India will play before they face Thailand, UAE, and Bahrain in the group stages of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. These players' exclusion could mean that they may not even get the chance of representing the nation in the aforementioned tournament.
Here we take a look at those omitted players and make a playing XI out of them.
Honourable mentions
Bilal Khan (Real Kashmir FC)
Keeping a clean sheet against defending champions Minerva Punjab in their own den, that too when your side is playing their first top division game, is never an easy task. But, Real Kashmir custodian Bilal Khan lived up to the task and produced two stunning saves in the game to bag the Hero of the Match.
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However, India is a country which is blessed with goalkeepers. And such nature of it keeps him out of our unpicked XI as well.
CK Vineeth (Kerala Blasters)
CK Vineeth surpassed Ian Hume as the all-time top scorer for Kerala Blasters this season. The Keralite's knack of scoring goals in the later stages of the game could have come handy as the Blue Tigers mostly resort to counter attacks and pounce on the chances after absorbing pressure.
However, Constantine decided to only include one striker so as to accommodate as many midfielders as possible. Unfortunately, that one position fell to a Shillong Lajong youngster.