Onus on other players to take up mantle after Sunil Chhetri retires, says Gurpreet

Kolkata: India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu on Friday said that other players will have to step up and take the national team forward after the retirement of talismanic captain and striker Sunil Chhetri.

The team assembled here for training ahead of its must-win World Cup qualifier against Kuwait at the Salt Lake Stadium on June 6 which will be the long-serving skipper Chhetri’s

final international appearance. “The onus is on the players to take up the mantle.

Eventually, this was going to happen, and we have to learn to cope without him (Chhetri),” Sandhu said during a media interaction at the National Centre of Excellence here.

“We have also experienced playing without Sunil Bhai in some matches in the past. It’s not that we

have done really badly; we need to manage things without him. New players need to show up and take the nation forward.”

India had famously played out a goal-less draw against mighty Qatar -- twice Asian Cup champions (2019 and 2024) -- in Doha in a 2022 World Cup qualifying round match in September 2019 when Chhetri sat out due to illness.

Chhetri has scored 94 goals from 150 matches in a career spanning 19 years. He is currently

the third leading active international goal scorer behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.