Forward Rakib Hossain said that India are strong, but Bangladesh are now a more organised side compared to the past.

The charges of Javier Cabrera reached the capital of Meghalaya on Thursday, five days before the scheduled AFC Asian Cup Qualifying match against hosts India on March 25.

The booters also had their first training session in Shillong but the pitch was not up to mark according to Cabrera. However, the Spaniard hopes they would get better ground to train from tomorrow.

"I faced India twice and those were quite competitive matches. In the 2021 SAFF Championship, we played a 1-1 draw against them. They are a strong team but we are now a much more organised team and we will be trying to play better football," Rakib was quoted as saying in a video clip sent by the Bangladesh Football Federation.

Rakib believes the presence of Hamza Choudhury is inspiring all of the players and they are trying to cope with the Shillong weather quickly.

"The presence of Hamza is a motivation for all players in the team because he is a top-quality player and we will try to display a good show for him and try to win the match against India," said Rakib.

The Bashundhara Kings forward also said, "It is almost the same weather in Shillong compared to Saudi Arabia. I think we won't face any problem because we had trained in Saudi Arabia in similar weather for 10 days and we are expecting to adapt to the condition quickly."

Coach Cabrera was seemingly not happy with the condition of the pitch but hoped to get better ones in the next days.  

"It [pitch] is not up to the mark surely but our manager is trying to get the right facilities the next day. Hopefully we will get it," said Cabrera.

"India are the strongest side in South Asia and India's win against Maldives was expected. That is the reality but the good thing is that many of our players have experience of playing against India at different age-groups," Cabrera added.