By Alam Zeb Safi
LAHORE: Pakistan Under-20 football team head coach Shehzad Anwar remains confident of building a competitive squad for the upcoming SAFF Under-20 Football Championship despite the challenge of fielding a largely inexperienced group of players who have had limited international exposure.
The regional tournament will be held in Maldives from March 23 to April 4, with Pakistan drawn in Group B alongside Bangladesh and India.
Shehzad said the team is currently undergoing a training camp at Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad where 28 players are being assessed before the final 23-member squad is announced.
“We will be able to constitute a competitive team,” Shehzad told thecricketplus.com, adding that the final selection would be made soon.
Because preparations are taking place during the holy month of Ramadan, the team has adopted a two-session training schedule. A short workout is held before Iftar while a full training session takes place after Taraveeh prayers.
Shehzad, Pakistan’s only Pro License football coach who has also served as head coach of the national senior team on several occasions, said the squad is expected to include at least one off-shore player.
Midfielder Zain Imran, who is based in Australia, is part of the preparations while England-based striker Umar Nawaz could also join the squad if travel arrangements are resolved.
Nawaz, a former student of Army Public School in Peshawar, moved to England with his family following the 2014 militant attack on the school. He has previously represented Pakistan at the senior level against against Afghanistan.
Shehzad said Pakistan football has witnessed a noticeable shift in recent years, with players from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emerging as a dominant presence across national teams.
“There is a change seen in football and the KP belt is laden with football activities,” he said.
According to Shehzad, several youth teams and senior squads in recent years have featured a large number of players from the province.
“In Punjab football has seen a decline, while in Sindh the local football activities are good,” he said. “But if you look at the National Challenge Cup held in Karachi, around 80 percent of the players in the competing teams were from KP.”
The coach admitted that preparing the current Under-20 squad has been challenging because many of the eligible players have had little competitive exposure over the last few years.
Players born in 2007 are eligible for the tournament, but Shehzad said that age group has missed important competitions.
“In the previous Under-19 team, the eligible players were born in 2005. In the middle Pakistan missed an Under-19 event when the Normalisation Committee was in operation,” he said.
As a result, several players born in 2007 have not participated in a major event for four to five years. Some players born in 2008 have limited experience while the younger 2009 group recently competed at the Under-17 level.
However, Shehzad noted that the jump to Under-20 football is significant.
“Under-20 is almost like senior team football,” he said.
Around 13 players currently in the training camp are attached to departmental teams while nine members of the provisional squad have no international experience.
Pakistan’s record at the youth level has been modest. Over the last 25 years the country has won only one match at the Under-19 level, a victory against India in the 2011 AFC Under-19 Qualifiers in Iran. Shehzad was the coach of that side.
“That was a different team,” Shehzad said. “It was a terrific squad which was mostly made up of departmental players while the current team is completely new and inexperienced.”
He added that the team will also have to cope with difficult weather conditions in Maldives, where high temperatures and humidity are expected during the tournament.
“It’s a big challenge as the weather there will be very hot,” he said.
Shehzad also pointed to infrastructure limitations in Pakistan, noting that Islamabad is a single venue where teams can train under lights, a factor that affects preparation during Ramadan.
“In Ramadan the entire routine is changed and after Eid there will be a challenge of adaptation,” he said.
The SAFF Under-20 Championship features two groups. Group A includes Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka while Group B comprises Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals scheduled for April 1.
Pakistan will leave Islamabad for Maldives on March 20 and will open their campaign against Bangladesh on March 24 at the National Stadium in Male. Their second group match against India will be played on March 26.
