India vs Maldives: Sunil Chhetri returns with crunch Bangladesh Asian Cup qualifier looming

“It doesn’t matter if a player is 20, 40 or my grandfather at 87.”

Ahead of a friendly tune up against Maldives, Indian head coach Manolo Marquez couldn’t have made it any more clear where he stood on the international retirement u-turn of Sunil Chhetri. The striker, who is enjoying an unprecedented windfall this late in his career (12 goals in 23 ISL appearances this season) comes back for India and Marquez at a time when the age old Indian football conundrum rears its quarterly head – where will the goals come from and who scores them?

Chhetri is the easy fix to that answer, even though, statistically, it wasn’t like India were drowning in goals or chances created when the 40-year-old was the striker general of the team, especially in the last few years of his international reign. But as has been a regular feature of the national football team, a hopeful solution is often the only solution. For Marquez, bringing Chhetri back, even if it means bringing him on as a substitute, is a better striker option than whatever the Indian league ecosystem is able to provide.

“For sure, Sunil will play some minutes. I don’t know whether as a starter or from the bench. We can use six substitutions, so 17 players can play, and I think Sunil will be one of them,” Marquez said.

Against Maldives, India gets the opportunity of a quick tune-up before the all important game against Bangladesh, a Asian Cup qualifier of actual importance for international football in the country. After multiple appearances in the continental competition, albeit at the cost of cheap first round exits, not making the 2027 Asian Cup would be quite a disastrous indictment of where football in the country remains.

Ranked 162nd in the world, beating Maldives should look easy on paper, but these days for the national team, that is easier said than done. Despite the result, the one advantage India can carry forward is that both these games will take place in Shillong, a first for the national team. There will be no long travel days between different countries and the time that Marquez will get with players, as limited as it is already, will be crucial.

When the Spaniard had joined the national team setup last year, he had earmarked these games as some of the crucial ones in the 2025 calendar. Now key players have the chance to lift their fitness levels, especially towards the end of the season in India.