On March 12, 2015, 21-year-old Sandesh Jhingan stepped onto the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium pitch in Guwahati wearing the blue of India for the first time.A momentous occasion for the Chandigarh-born lad, and on a significant stage too - the first round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against Nepal.
The young but brave Jhingan partnered Arnab Mondal in central defence for a well-earned clean sheet in a 2-0 victory during what were difficult times for the Blue Tigers, who were placed at 173, the lowest-ever rank in national team history. But tough times make tough men, and Jhingan would go on to write his name as one of the nation's best defenders of this century.
On Monday against Vanuatu in Bhubaneswar, the sturdy centre-back earned his 50th international cap. In Jhingan's language, the 50th day he gave it his all to defend his nation's goal.In a chat with the-aiff.com, he shares his aspirations to have many more such days, thoughts on India's performance in the Hero Intercontinental Cup so far, hopes to finally win the SAFF Championship and the importance of a grand Indian show on the grand AFC Asian Cup stage next year.
Q. Congratulations on your 50th international cap Sandesh. What does this milestone mean for you?
Jhingan: Of course, it means a lot. Every time I step onto the pitch, wear the jersey, sing the national anthem and represent my country, it's for me, personally, the greatest honour of my sporting career.
10-15 years ago, I used to watch the Indian team batch of Bob Houghton and the likes of Sunil Chhetri, Climax Lawrence and the whole team back in the day, dreaming of playing for the country one day. And now, sitting here and having made my 50th appearance, I would probably say well done to that kid who saw the dream from the streets of Chandigarh. I'm so happy for that kid.
Going forward, the sky's the limit always. I've always lived my life by this mantra. Never settle for anything, always aim higher. And yeah, the target is now 100 appearances. But one game at a time, do as much service as I can for the country, as long as I'm valuable, as long as I am providing the goods and doing well. I'll just enjoy every appearance and then let's see how long I can go.
Q. In the current squad, you are also actually the second-highest top scorer after Chhetri alongside Chhangte with five goals. How much is scoring goals part of your plan on the pitch?
Jhingan: To be honest, I never take it as a priority. For me, how I bring food to the table for my family is with my clean sheets. That is how I do my job - what the coach asks me to do, what my roles are in the dressing room and on the training pitch.
You need to get the system ready on the pitch when the other team is changing formations, and how you react to it. I take more pride in that, and I think that's my bread and butter.Goals are always a bonus, I believe. Of course, you want to pitch in as much as you can. But it's not a good sign if I'm second on the top-scorers list.
I would love to be at the bottom of the list and still have at least 20 goals for the country (laughs).I would want my strikers and midfielders to have as many goals as they can have and I'll be happy keeping clean sheets and keeping the house clean. I think that builds the team's future on a very solid base. That's the way I look at it.
Q. How do you sum up India's first two games of the Intercontinental Cup? You must be delighted with two clean sheets. But, overall, how do you look at how we've done so far?
Jhingan: I think I'm really happy. The other day we were speaking on the pitch as a group. Whatever we're doing on the pitch is an exact carbon copy of how we are training. For me, as a student of this game, as a lover of this game, if you train something every day and if you can replicate it on the matchday I think it's a very beautiful thing to watch.
Of course, it's always difficult because we all come from different clubs, different philosophies, different ways of playing and all. Then in the national camp, you need to straightaway get that camaraderie again and perform in the first game, so it takes some time.
But I think in the past two games, a lot of appreciation should go to the coaching staff. The way they've trained us in this camp, we showed improvement. The clear signal from us, the boys, is to improve with every game. Purely based on statistics I think our graph is going up.
But we know the potential of our batch. I've said this since I've been part of the national camp in 2013 and made my debut in 2015, every time I've felt the batch getting stronger and stronger. We are realising the potential and achieving success as well. But the sky's the limit and we've just got to keep improving game by game.
Now, we have a tough game against Lebanon. All games are tough in modern football. Mongolia and Vanuatu really gave us a very tough time. It was one of the goals for us to stick to the system. It's always lovely to see when you implement it on the pitch and also see the things you need to improve. That's the whole point of being in a team. The ultimate goal is the Asian Cup. And I have a very good, happy and positive feeling about how it's going so far.