India have been slotted in Pot 3 for the official draw of the AFC U-16 Championship Bahrain 2020 which is to be held at the AFC House Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, June 18.
India qualified for the U-16 Finals when they finished as Group B champions in Tashkent from a group which had Uzbekistan (hosts), Bahrain and Turkmenistan. The Indian colts finished with 7 points from three matches scoring 10 goals while conceding only one.
This is India's third consecutive qualification in the AFC U-16 finals, and ninth overall.
In 2018, the U-16 boys stayed a win away from a direct qualification into the FIFA U-17 World Cup when they lost to the Korea Republic by a solitary goal in the quarterfinals. That was India's second entry into the quarterfinals, the earlier being in 2002.
The current batch will head to the Championship in Bahrain on back of some amazing results last year that saw them net score a whopping 28 goals (without conceding any in five matches) on their way to the SAFF U-15 Championship title. The boys currently stay unbeaten in 8 international matches.
"We are eagerly looking forward to the draw. The boys gave a good account of themselves when they qualified above Uzbekistan that too in Uzbekistan in the Qualifiers. It's time for them to show their character and gear themselves for sterner tests in the future," head coach Bibiano Fernandes stated.
( With inputs from ANI )