Sunil Chhetri’s second-half brace against Bangladesh helped India to end their 11-match winless streak. It was also India’s first win in the 7th game in the Asian leg of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sunil Chhetri scored in the 79th and 92nd minute to lead India to a 2-0 win over Bangladesh
• Sunil Chhetri now has 74 goals from 117 matches, 2 more than Argentina captain Lionel Messi
• India have six points in seven matches in the FIFA World Cup qualifier

It won’t be wrong to say that Sunil Chhetri has been carrying the national football team single-handedly for more than a decade. The Indian captain has rescued his team countless times, and no one really knows where the team would be on the football map without Sunil Chhetri.

The 36-year-old scored a brace in India’s 2-0 win over Bangladesh in their Group E clash at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha. With his brace, Chhetri (74 goals in 117 matches) eclipses Argentina’s Lionel Messi (72 in 143 games) and becomes the second-highest active international goalscorer, after Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (103 goals in 174 games). In the all-time goalscorers list in International football, Chhetri is ranked 11th.

However, the question remains, what will happen to Indian football once the charismatic striker hangs his boots. Chhetri is 36, and by no means he is getting any younger.

Indian head coach Igor Stimac is aware of the importance of Sunil Chhetri and has heaped praise on his skipper after the win against Bangladesh. However, the Croatian did question what will happen to Indian football once Chhetri retires.

“Last year, many people were asking last year or so, ‘when is Sunil going to retire?’ What are we going to do then if he retires?. By far, in every training session, he (Chhetri) is our best player,” Stimac said in a virtual press conference.

After his heroics on Monday evening, Chhetri is now the only Indian player to score a goal in three different decades. Chhetri’s first international goal came against Cambodia on August 17, 2007, in the Nehru Cup at the Ambedkar stadium in New Delhi. Then a young forward scored a brace as India thumped Cambodia 6-0. In the last decade, he scored a hat-trick in India’s 3-1 win over Vietnam in Pune on October 8, 2010.

India moved to six points from seven matches, while Bangladesh are at two points from seven matches. India next play Afghanistan in their last group league match on June 15.