Apurna Narzary in Indian senior football team

Guwahati, March 17: Assam girl Apurna Narzary has been included in the senior women’s national football team that will play friendly matches in Jordan and Uzbekistan.

Head coach Thomas Dennerby named a 23- member squad that will play for the matches to be held between March 17 and March 29.

The feisty forward from Kokrajhar recently captained the Indian team in the AFC U-20 Asian Cup Qualifiers Round 1 in Vietnam. In three matches Apurna scored three goals.

The Blue Tigresses will be playing these matches in preparation for the team's participation in Round 1 of the AFC Women's Olympic Qualifiers.

India, placed in Group G, will take on hosts Kyrgyz Republic and Turkmenistan in a round robin format from April 4-10.

The seven group winners from the first round of the qualifiers will join Asia’s five highest-ranked teams — DPR Korea, Japan, Australia, China and the Republic of Korea — in the second round of the Paris 2024 Olympic women’s football qualifiers to be held in October.

The squad for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament will be named after the friendlies in Jordan and Uzbekistan.

The 23-member squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Sowmiya Narayanasamy, Shreya Hooda and Elangbam Panthoi Chanu.

Defenders: Ashalata Devi Loitongbam, Sweety Devi Ngangbam, Ritu Rani, Ranjana Chanu Sorokhaibam, Michel Castanha, Dalima Chhibber, Manisa Panna and Juli Kishan.

Midfielders: Shilky Devi Hemam, Anju Tamang, Indumathi Kathiresan, Sangita Basfore, Roja Devi Asem, Karthika Angamuthu and Kashmina.

Forwards: Grace Dangmei, Renu, Karishma Shirvoikar, Sandhiya Ranganathan and Apurna Narzary.

Fixtures:

March 20: Nepal vs India, 1445 hrs IST

March 24: India vs Bangladesh, 1845 hrs IST

March 26: India vs Bhutan, 1445 hrs IST

March 28: Russia vs India, 1845 hrs IST