"We all had a dream to see India in the World Cup one day" - Sandesh Jhingan
Indian defender Sandesh Jhingan has opened up about the dream that he and his fellow teammates, who entered the national team setup together, had.
The ace center-back stated that the likes of Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, and himself dreamed of seeing India play at the FIFA World Cup one day.
Jihinggan told AIFF's official website:
"When we had all just come into the national team at that time, Gurpreet, Amrinder (Singh), myself, and we all had a dream to see India in the World Cup one day. That may still be a distant dream, but being a regular in the Asian Cup is certainly one step closer to it."
Jhingan, who came into the limelight during the first edition of the ISL while representing the Kerala Blasters, was adjudged the Emerging Player of the Season due to his superlative displays.
He made his India debut in a 2-0 win over Nepal during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers qualifying round first-leg fixture in March 2015.
"We are now at a stage where qualification to the Asian Cup should be normal" - Sandesh Jhingan
Sandesh Jhingan further stated that India qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup should not be something to be celebrated going forward.
"I feel we are now at a stage where qualification to the Asian Cup should be normal and that we should not celebrate it. We should instead be looking forward to making it to the next stage, which is to qualify from the group stage onwards," he stated.
He also talked about India's performance in the previous edition of the continental event, how different the challenges are this time, and how the current team is compared to the previous squad.
"We did well in 2019 to win the first game against Thailand but lost the next two games. This time, we have a difficult challenge ahead, but our mentality should be to try and qualify for the knockout round. We have certainly improved a lot as a team in the last few years, and now we want to prove it on the pitch," Jhingan elaborated.
The 30-year-old, who currently represents FC Goa in the ISL, has been one of the mainstays in the Indian team over the years.
Jhingan's experience will be of paramount importance to Igor Stimac's team at the upcoming Asian Cup as he was a part of the Blue Tigers' squad in the previous edition of the tournament as well.