Looking forward to ISL but World Cup qualifiers remain our priority: Sunil Chhetri

India’s Sunil Chhetri will be playing for Mumbai City FC in the ISL

After a spirited display against Oman in Bengaluru, India has suffered two demoralising losses in their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. While the most recent drubbing against Iran was expected, the away no-show against lowly Guam came as a major jolt, one which dealt a severe blow to India’s aspirations of clawing back in the pecking order of Asian football.

All is not lost yet though as the rules say the four best runners-up across all groups will advance to the third round and Asian Cup. The remaining four runners-up will advance to the Asian Cup qualifying third round while the four best fourth-placed teams across all groups also advance to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. The four fourth-placed teams will advance to the Asian Cup qualifying play-off round.

Perplexing as it sounds, it means India still stand a chance of playing in the prestigious continental cup if they can initiate a comeback and list some inspiring results in the remaining 5 fixtures. Needless to say, the Blue Tigers have been lacklustre so far with only Sunil Chhetri showing any sort of purpose and intent in his performances. In fact, he is also the only player to score in either of the aforementioned fixtures.

With two goals in three matches, he continues to guide India’s strike force singlehandedly. As we caught up with him at the ISL's Media Day at Mumbai's NSCI complex yesterday, the Bengaluru FC and Mumbai City FC striker emphasised on how the tourney will help members of the national team stay in shape for the matches against Turkmenistan, Oman and Guam over the next 2 months.

ISL will help Indian players develop ahead of World Cup qualifiers: Chhetri

“The ISL is a big opportunity for all of us,” Chhetri said. “It provides us a platform to compete and play with the best in the world and that will help us develop massively before we take on the likes of Turkmenistan in October.”

Asked if the gulf in the standards of our players and the international stars in the league was massive Chhetri explained, “There might be a difference in the quality of techniques compared to international players and that’s obvious. But in terms of strength and endurance, we are nowhere behind them.”

India's captain marvel and all-time highest goalscorer confessed these were indeed testing times for the national team, but assured that the squad under gaffer Stephen Constantine was putting their best foot forward and that the ISL is only going to enrich that effort.

“I am definitely looking forward to play good games in the ISL and score goals. But it is equally important for all of us to stay injury free. The World Cup qualifiers remain our priority.”