India coach Naushad Musa calls Bangladesh SAFF's strongest team, hopes for a final meeting

India coach Naushad Musa has described Bangladesh as the strongest team at the SAFF Championship about to begin in Dhaka. After arriving in the capital for the tournament, he said Bangladesh are, in his view, the strongest side in the competition at the moment, and that he hopes to meet them in the final.

Bangladesh are dreaming of the title at this SAFF Championship with Hamza Choudhury and Shamit Shome in the squad. Compared with the other five nations, Bangladesh are being seen as the strongest team in the regional tournament, and the coach of rivals India has now voiced the same assessment.

Naushad Musa said, 'In my consideration, Bangladesh are the strongest team in the tournament at this moment. I hope we will face them in the final.' At the same time, he made no secret of his own team's limitations.

India's biggest preparation complication comes from the FIFA window. India's main national team will play two friendlies against New Zealand during this period, so head coach Khalid Jamil will be in charge of that side. Naushad Musa will therefore stand in the dugout for the 'B' team at the SAFF Championship.

India's 28-member SAFF squad is made up mostly of under-23 players. On top of that, with the Indian Super League (ISL) in progress, Naushad is not getting all his players from the clubs at the start, making it difficult for India to field a full-strength team in the first match.

Naushad himself spoke of that challenge, saying several players would not be available before the first match, which is a challenge, but that the squad he has is not a bad one and India still have a strong team.

Even so, Bangladesh have no room to take this India side lightly. At the 2009 SAFF Championship in Dhaka, India also came with an under-23 team; they beat hosts Bangladesh 1-0 in the semi-final and then defeated the Maldives 3-1 on penalties in the final to win the title.

India's SAFF record is rich. After their first title in 1993, they were champions in 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2021 and 2023 — nine titles in all — and they have come to Dhaka this time chasing a tenth trophy. Their most recent title came in 2023, when they beat Kuwait in the final.

Recent head-to-head meetings, however, favour Bangladesh. On 18 November last year in Dhaka, Bangladesh beat India 1-0 in an AFC Asian Cup qualifying match. Before that, in March 2025, the two teams drew 0-0 on Indian soil.

Under the tournament equation, if both sides win their two group matches and their semi-finals, India and Bangladesh will meet in the final. Even with a second-string squad, defending champions India are still placed at number one on the favourites list and are regarded as Bangladesh's main rivals — making the final Naushad hopes for the tournament's most talked-about prospect.