Indian men's football team to play international friendly against New Zealand in Auckland

According to a Sportstar report, the Indian men's football team will play an international friendly match against New Zealand at the Go Media Stadium in Auckland on Thursday. This will be the first of two friendly matches between the two sides during the international window, aimed at celebrating the completion of 100 years of sporting ties between the two nations. The match will kick off at 11:30 am Indian Standard Time on Thursday, 12 November.

The match will not be broadcast on television anywhere in India. This fixture will be livestreamed on FIFA+ via DAZN. In the world rankings, India is placed 138th, while New Zealand is ranked 88th. In the last three matches played in October, Ryan Williams scored the only goal for the Indian team.

Compared to the last window where India played matches against Panama, Brazil and Uruguay, coach Khalid Jamil has made several changes to the team and announced a new squad for the upcoming friendly matches. In this new squad, captain and experienced goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu has been left out. Additionally, Som Kumar, Ricky Meetei Haobam, Lalremtluanga Fanai and Tomba Singh Haobam have been included in the squad for the first time.

While the SAFF Championship is underway in which India is fielding its second-string team, Bijoy Varghese, Muhammed Suhail and Liston Colaco have departed to join the senior team for the two international friendly matches.