SAFF Championship 2013 Warm up: India to play Friendly against Tajikistan

India will be in action at last after a gap of over four months when they face the Tajikistan challenge in an international friendly on August 14.  After having failed to play friendlies despite all the brouhaha around the importance of being in action on FIFA days; as part of their preparations for the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship, India will play the Persian Lions. India were last seen in action at the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers where their poor performances eventually saw them finish second in the group. 

They needed a draw in their final group match to confirm their participation in the Challenge Cup however they eventually lost to hosts Myanmar with a 1-0 scoreline.
  Tajikistan, ranked 112 and 35 spots above India, have a similar tale as they lost their final Challenge Cup qualifiers group game to hosts Kyrgyzstan 1-0 and thereby missed out on a berth in the continental competition.
India have played three competetive matches against Tajikistan where they have won drawn and lost each. Tajikistan beat India 2-0 in the Challenge Cup's 2012 edition in Nepal when the last time the two sides met eachother.