What will be India's ideal draw at the AFC Asian Cup 2023?

India will get to know their group on May 11, Thursday, when the draw for the AFC Asian Cup 2023 takes place at the Katara Opera House in Doha, Qatar. The main tournament is scheduled to be played between January 12 and February 10, 2024.

The Blue Tigers recently shaved off five places from their FIFA world ranking to jump from 106 to 101, coming ever so close to breaching that 100-rank mark once again in the national team's history. However, it wasn't meant to be for India as they were put into Pot 4 as per their newest rankings, meaning they would have three teams who will be higher in the food chain in their AFC Asian Cup group.

Following are the four pots which will go into the draw, all eagerly waiting to either let out a sigh of relief or dread the impending tournament:

Pot 1: Qatar, Japan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Korea Republic, Australia, Saudi Arabia

Pot 2: Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Uzbekistan, China PR, Jordan

Pot 3: Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Vietnam, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon

Pot 4: India, Tajikistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Indonesia

India's best-ever finish at the premier competition was when the team finished as runners-up in the 1964 Asian Cup, although it was a four-team tournament. After that, the nation has failed to get out of the group stages in the 1984, 2011, and 2019 editions.

So, what will be India's ideal opponents in the group stage in order for Igor Stimac's men to see the light at the end of the tunnel and reach the knockouts for the first time ever?

Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon.

Going through the latest FIFA rankings, the above three teams, namely Qatar (61), Jordan (84), and Lebanon (99) would be India's most ideal trio to play against in the group stage and hope for a way out of it and into the knockouts.

If we look at Qatar, they will be the defending champions of the Asian Cup, after they defeated the might of Japan 3-1 in the 2019 final. Nonetheless, India have had promising performances against the Qatari in the recent past.

During the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers back in 2019, India kept a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw against Qatar where keeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu came to the fore and made many important saves. Another result, despite being a loss, was the 2021 WC and Asian Cup qualifier between the two sides, which saw Abdel Aziz's strike give Qatar a 1-0 win over India.

Jordan, on the other hand, has had a significantly better pedigree at the tournament than India. On their debut appearance at the Cup in 2004, the Jordanians went on to reach the quarter-finals when they were knocked out by eventual champions Japan via a penalty shootout. Moreover, the nation also managed to reach the quarters in their next appearance in 2011.

In terms of head-to-head with India, the middle-eastern nation triumphed in the recent matches with 2-1 and 2-0 victories over the Blue Tigers.

For the final ideal opponent, we have Lebanon. Interestingly, the Indian national team will face Lebanon in almost all of the international cup competitions leading up to the Asian Cup, namely the Intercontinental Cup, the SAFF Cup, King's Cup, and the Merdeka Cup.

The Lebanese would perhaps be India's easiest opponents, if this group were to come into existence after the draw, as their past performances in the two appearances at the Cup have been quite underwhelming.

In their last three matches, Lebanon have won two while India have got the bragging rights in one. In the months to come, Stimac's men will get plenty of chances to play against the Lebanese to hatch a plan, that is if they are drawn alongside each other in the same group.