India U-23 prepare for Olympic qualifiers against Qatar

The Indian national Under-23 team camp for the second Round Asian qualifiers against Qatar for the 2012 London Olympics kicked-off on Friday in Pune, but due to the rains they had to train indoors on day one.

Yesterday the 25 probables got a chance to test the grass in a short camp under the watchful eyes of coach Desmond Bulpin and the Englishman has one major advantage that the core of his team are from his Indian Arrows side who played the I-League this year. So the often needed time to gel and get to know each other will be much shorter as players who had performed well in the I-League were added to the probables.

Reflecting on the importance of the camp, coach Desmond Bulpin highlighted, "It is important to prepare in the right manner for such a crucial match."

The India Under-23 have been given a tough draw as our side will have to face Gulf nation Qatar home-and-away on June 19 and June 23 to make it into the third Round Asian group stage. In the first round India had beaten neighbours Myanmar 3-2 on aggregate in a home-and-away tie.

But it isn't impossible for the Under-23 boys to move on and for that to happen they need to get a positive result in Doha on June 19 to make an upset possible four days later in Pune.


INDIA U-23 Probables

Goalkeepers
Laxmikant Kattimani (Dempo SC), Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (Indian Arrows), Jagroop Singh (Indian Arrows), Ravi Kumar (Indian Arrows)

Defenders
Abhishek Das (Indian Arrows), R. Vishal Kumar (Indian Arrows), Raju Eknath Gaekwad (Indian Arrows), Deepak Devrani (Indian Arrows), Lalrozama Fenai (Indian Arrows), Inderpreet Singh (Indian Arrows), Arnab Mondal (Chirag United SC), Shahbas Shaleel (ONGC)

Midfielders
Kh. Jibon Singh (Indian Arrows), Shilton D'Silva (Indian Arrows), Jewel Raja Sheikh (Indian Arrows), Ongnam Milan Singh (Indian Arrows), Lalrindika Ralte (Indian Arrows), Gurjinder Kumar (Pune FC), Snehashis Chakroborty (Mohun Bagan AC), Anthony Barbosa (Salgaocar SC), Zakir Mundampara (Churchill Brothers SC)

Forwards
Jeje Lalpekhlua (Indian Arrows) (Indian Arrows), Jagtar Singh (Indian Arrows), Manandeep Singh (Indian Arrows), C.S. Sabeeth (Viva Kerala)

Officials
Desmond Bulpin (Coach)