Team India rise in FIFA rankings: more games would have helped maintain the momentum

THE DUAL WIN against Laos in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers (3rd Round) Playoffs last month has worked well for the Indian national team. In the latest FIFA rankings, they have jumped 11 spots to assume a world ranking of 152.

The home-away leg, which took place last month, saw the Blue Tigers win the away match 0-1 and ran rampant in the return leg at home, winning the match by a 6-1 margin.

This improvement in rankings, though nothing too radical, shows what regular matches and proper practice before them can do to Team India's consistency and rankings. And the way things are poised, this increase in ranking points will see India climb higher in FIFA rankings even if they don't play another game in 2016, which is likely to be the case since ISL, due to run from October to December, does not have international breaks unlike every top division league of repute in the world.

Although not playing matches in the near future will not cause problems for the Blue Tigers in terms of rankings, leaving the team disbanded for such a long stretch may pose a risk of losing the momentum that Constantine and his boys had built up over the last year thanks to back to back games in the World Cup Qualifiers and the SAFF Championship. Qualifying for the Asian Cup 2019 is the big target that coach Constantine has set for Team India, and playing regular international friendlies over the next few months would have helped them even if it came with the slight downside of a potential short-term slide in the FIFA rankings. But that will not happen since ISL claims an exclusive window in the Indian football calendar and AIFF does not schedule any international friendlies in the middle of the tournament. 

Hopefully AIFF have a plan in place to make sure that by the time the Asian Cup Qualifiers (3rd Round) kicks off in March, the squad will have spent enough time in preparatory camps and played a few international friendlies, making  full use of the international breaks that I-League thankfully has.