#2 Apart from Yemen, Syria not playing anyone
Even if we don't take into account the national team ranking, we must acknowledge that Syria is a strong team. The players are warriors in the sense that they battle odds like war and destruction to play football.
However, Syria isn't playing a single friendly match in the build-up to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. That puts India in a position of strength and not Syria. However, the AIFF apologized to the Syrian Arab Federation for Football and canceled the friendly. They would now have to be content with playing the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, Yemen, on the given day.
Syria is in the group of Australia and would have come prepared well to qualify for next round. India had to gain more than Syria by playing them.