Oman 1-0 India: 3 Reasons why the Blue Tigers went down in Muscat

#2 Injury gambles backfire with no room for attacking substitutions

Pronay Halder picked up an injury in the first half that forced him to be taken off

Both Adil Khan and Pronay Halder came into the game with niggles that they had picked up in Dushanbe. Hence, it was a gamble from Stimac to put both of them in the starting lineup.

Sure enough, 35 minutes into the game, India were forced to make two substitutions, with both Halder and Adil forced off, being replaced by Vinit Rai and Anas Edathodika.

It's clear why Stimac wanted Adil to start the game. Anas had just joined the camp in Muscat after a family emergency had forced him out of the game in Dushanbe. Rahul Bheke has been tentative in his initial days in an India shirt and Sarthak Golui hasn't played competitive international football for quite some time.

That meant that Stimac possibly felt he had to take the risk of starting Adil and from the first minute, he didn't look quite right, being very reluctant to engage in duels or a foot-race with Al-Ghassani.

It was the same with Halder, who also picked up an early shoulder injury in a duel with Al-Mandhar Al-Alawi, which restricted his mobility even further. He would go on to pick up a yellow card for cynically stopping an Omani counter-attack, before being replaced.

These two early jolts, coupled with Rahul Bheke's injury in the second half, meant that Stimac couldn't make the changes he would have wanted to make to alter the scoreline and chase the game.

The likes of Seiminlen Doungel, who scored the equaliser against Afghanistan, Sahal Abdul Samad and Anirudh Thapa were left warming the bench till the end.

It was a very avoidable situation for Stimac, given that the likes of Raynier Fernandes and Vinit were available to start in midfield, alongwith Anas and Golui who eventually came on.