SAFF Championship 2026 - Why champion India shouldn't take Pakistan and Maldives lightly in Bangladesh

Naushad Moosa has a tough task in trying to defend the SAFF Championship title with a depleted squad.

In a packed November schedule, the Indian men's football team will play four matches and, in effect, field two different teams. It's not an uncommon phenomenon in modern sports as evidenced by the country's men's cricket team, which fielded two different sides at the Asian Games and the home ODI series against the West Indies in September.

The first match kicks off on Thursday, against Pakistan in the 2026 SAFF Championship in Dhaka. India has a depleted squad, an under-23 coach - Naushad Moosa - in charge, and a title to defend.

Despite the team languishing at 138th in the FIFA rankings, Pakistan, ranked 197th currently, poses little threat. So does the Maldives, which did not have top-flight league football for three years between 2023 and 2025.

But in football, upsets are the selling point of matches involving lower-ranked teams -- something host Bangladesh knows better than most, having beaten India last November for the first time in 26 years. That match was played in Dhaka. It is here that India will try to pick up the pieces.

Its arrival was not especially pleasant: players were stranded without rooms for four hours before finally settling in late Monday night. The team trained in Kolkata on November 2 and will hold another session in Dhaka on the eve of the opener against Pakistan.

Moosa has been here before, when 29 years ago, as a player, helped India retain the 1997 SAFF Championship, then the SAFF Gold Cup. A depleted squad to work with is also familiar territory for the former India defender.

During the AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers last year, he lost players like Suhail Ahmad Bhat before the team left for Doha. India beat Bahrain and Brunei, but a loss to Qatar cost it a maiden qualification.

Now Moosa has a second chance to conjure a success story. His greatest advantage is a core of club teammates and prior experience of coaching most of the players available to him.

Punjab FC forward Muhammad Suhail, who impressed in the Asian Cup qualifiers, is expected to lead the attack down the flanks, with Noufal PN on the opposite side. Noufal, 26, has impressed with his surging runs for Mumbai City FC and fits the bill in the absence of Liston Colaco. Bhat and Irfan Yadwad are expected to lead the line in a 4-4-2 shape.

Moosa can call on Farukh Choudhary and Suresh Singh Wangjam in midfield, alongside Nikhil Prabhu, who can partner Suresh in a double pivot and bring senior-team experience into a squad whose defence will likely shoulder a lot of the burden in the absence of an experienced goalkeeper.

It could leave the likes of Bijoy Varghese, Chinglensana Singh Konsham, Hmingthanmawia Ralte and Muhammed Uvais vulnerable at the back.

Moosa's sides are typically quick in transition and move the ball down the wings -- Muhammad Suhail and Noufal will be expected to supply that pace. "When you see our time, football was played in a certain way," Moosa told Sportstar in an earlier interview. "Now it's totally different; it has become more tactical. We are making players who have to be good at decision-making. It's about more pace than before."

Brison Fernandes brings similar traits. After breaking through at FC Goa, the winger, who moved to Chennaiyin this summer, will look to make the most of his return to the national team.

Pakistan, meanwhile, will hope for a better showing than three years ago, when it lost 0-4 to India and finished last in its group. Six players in its current squad play in Europe, though only two -- Mkeal Aroon Abdullah and Umar Nawaz -- are likely to be available against India.

Pakistan had won just one official match in 13 years before coach Nolberto Solano took over last year. It now has two wins and a draw in its last five. At the ASEAN Cup, it drew with the Philippines, a team ranked 63 places above it.

Solano was known as the Little Master -- a name Diego Maradona gave him -- during his playing days at Boca Juniors. The nickname is synonymous with a different sport in this part of the world. The Peruvian legend now has an opportunity to carve out a space for himself as Pakistan's coach.

The Maldives, too, has reason to believe in an upset. The last time it played India in Bangladesh, it won 2-1. Its current coach, István Urbányi, also inspired a stunning group-stage win against India's under-23 side in Bangladesh in 2009.

The stage for both defeats: the SAFF Championship.

Away matches have rarely respected reputations for too long. India will know it more than most, having suffered a humiliating loss in front of a partisan Dhaka crowd. Pakistan and Maldives will arrive with their own reasons to believe, but for Moosa and India, it will be a chance to reestablish South Asian dominance and prove that a depleted squad does not mean a depleted campaign.