The Indian football team await their fate with the Asian qualifiers draw for the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 set to be held in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
The seedings are allocated on the latest Fifa rankings and 40 countries have been divided into five pots consisting of eight teams each. All teams will compete in a double round-robin format (home and away) set to take place from September 5, 2019, to June 9, 2020 once the draws are announced.
The Blue Tigers have been placed in Pot 3 alongside Palestine, Bahrain, Thailand, Tajikistan, Korea DPR, Chinese Taipei and the Philippines.
A total of 12 teams consisting of the eight group winners and the four best runners-up will advance to the final round of qualification for the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 Asian Cup.
The remaining 24 teams will then take part in a separate round of qualifiers to book the remaining 12 slots in the 24-team Asian Cup that will be hosted by China.
Teams:
Pot 1: IR Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China PR
Pot 2: Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam, Jordan
Pot 3: Palestine, India, Bahrain, Thailand, Tajikistan, Korea DPR, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
Pot 4: Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Yemen, Afghanistan, Maldives, Kuwait, Malaysia
Pot 5: Indonesia, Singapore, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Guam, Sri Lanka
The draw will be telecast on DSport from 2.30 pm (IST).