India, Jan. 14 -- For Crispin Chhetri, 46 days between now and the AFC Women's Asian Cup equals to 22 training sessions. "That is how many days I will have after factoring in friendlies, recovery and travel," he said. "But that is the lot of national team coaches."

On Thursday, Chettri and the India women's football team will leave for Manavgat, Turkey, for three matches between January 18 and 24 against clubs from Switzerland as well as Ukraine's Metalist Kharkiv. "We couldn't get international teams because it is not a FIFA window," said Chhetri, the head coach.

That'll change in the Turkish Cup next month. The squad will then travel to Australia on February 10 to acclimatise and play a couple of friendlies ahead of the AFC Women's As...