Up against higher-ranked Belarus in their second international friendly here on Saturday, India head coach Igor Stimac on Friday said he would continue trying out new faces so as to keep his blueprint ready for the Asian Cup final round qualifiers in June.
India almost secured a draw against Bahrain with a second-half equaliser from Rahul Bheke but conceded an 88th minute goal to go down 1-2 in the first friendly here on Wednesday.
Belarus are 10 notches above 104th ranked India. Stimac, however, is not afraid of trying out youngsters and hinted at including Kerala Blasters’ 21-year-old defender Ruivah Hormipam in the Belarus match on Saturday.
“Definitely, there will be big changes for the Belarus game, some of it coming as a result of not good enough performance from some players from the previous game, some of it coming as an opportunity for those who I count on for the future,” the 54-year-old Croat said in a virtual press conference.
“We need to see what they can do at the international level. They had promising seasons in the ISL and this was a great challenge for them. So there will be the likes of Hormipam, Anwar (Ali), Roshan (Singh) on the pitch.
As a positive for India, more players would be available against Belarus. Amrinder Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Akash Mishra, Anirudh Thapa, Brandon Fernandes and Aniket Jadhav reached Manama on the day of Bahrain match due to visa-related issues. Only Thapa and Jadhav played against Bahrain.
Belarus are part of the Uefa World Cup qualifying group alongside Belgium, Wales, the Czech Republic and Estonia.
- Kick off: 9.30pm IST
