Experienced goalkeeper Owais Khan of Nagpur has been appointed captain of the Maharashtra state senior team which will participate in the qualifying round of the 72nd National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy to be held at Ahmedabad, Gujarat from January 9 to 13, 2018.

The 20-member Maharashtra team was selected after the 40 probables went through a strenuous camp under the supervision of Head Coach Augusto D’Silva, an AFC ‘A’ License holder. Augusto D’Silva, is being accompanied by Mathew Susainathan as Assistant Coach, Sudhakar Rane as Manager and Physiotherapist Kunal Bargal.

Maharashtra will face off against Daman & Diu (January 9), Lakshadweep (January 11) and Madhya Pradesh (January 13) in the West Zone qualifying round.

Matches will be played on a single leg league basis and the top two teams from each group will qualify for the Finals of the Championship.

MAHARASHTRA STATE TEAM SQUAD

Goalkeepers
Owais Khan (Nagpur), Harshad Meher (Mumbai)

Defenders
Dion Menezes, Shubham Khanvilkar, Nikhil Prabhu, Samson Joseph (all Mumbai), Afzaal Akhtar (Nagpur)

Midfielders
Ashrafali Makandar, Himanshu Patil, Linekar Machado, Mervin Stephen, Advait Shinde (all Mumbai), Kiran Pandhare (Solapur), Mohammed N.R. Ansari, Vasu Kanojiya (both Nagpur), Asifullah Khan (Yavatmal), Sahil Bhokare (Pune)

Forwards
Aniket Joshi (Nagpur), Ranjeet Singh, Aaron D’Costa (both Mumbai).

Officials
Augusto D’Silva (Head Coach, Mumbai), Mathew Susainathan (Assistant Coach), Sudhakar Rane (Manager), Kunal Bargal (Physiotherapist)