Chhetri keen to end India's poor away record

With a new coach and new-look team, India’s most experienced player Sunil Chhetri is keen to end the country’s poor away record.

As they head for the King’s Cup in Buriram in Thailand, the 34-year-old hoped they quickly grasp the methods of coach Igor Stimac.

“It’s a good mixture of boys. When the 37 boys were called I think everyone got a fair chance because there was no knowledge about what the kind of players were, from the coach’s side. So whatever he saw, was how he selected the boys. It’s a new chance for everyone to prove. The first things he came and said in the meeting was that (Komal) Thatal and Chhetri means the same to me, which is a great message for everyone -- that you work hard and you get a chance,” Chhetri told reporters on Saturday.

“I really hope we don’t do badly (in King’s Cup). We haven’t done generally well outside in the last 13 years. We are alright at home. But we are bad outside. I really want this to improve, and so does the team. There is no better challenge than this -- playing against Vietnam, Thailand and Curacao. They will pump you that much.”

Assessing the challenges ahead, Chhetri said: “The first is to understand what the coach wants and the way he wants us to play. It takes us time. I hope we can grasp a lot before playing our first match (against Curacao) on June 5. The second challenge is that a lot of us are coming from off-season, so we have to work on our fitness. I just hope that doesn’t bite us. We just had 12-13 days with the new coach.

“We have seen a few clips of the Curacao team and individuals. All eleven of them are in Europe and in big leagues which is good. We have got a very good team to play, it’s not every now and then you play teams from that region. And the coach has promised us he will get us more European games.

“I have played for 13-14 years but I haven’t played European games. It will be a good test for us,” said Chhetri who is currently a match away from being the most-capped Indian footballer in International football. At the moment, he is tied on 107 matches with Bhaichung Bhutia.