Twenty-four players will be bidding for 11 starting places in the Black Stars team that will face Malawi in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

The numbers do not scare Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah, rather he is happy to have such a pool to select the best from when he announces his team for Saturday's game at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Only 18 players will make the roster against the Flames but Appiah has talked about a need for the national team to give players a chance in order to raise the level of competition.

"It's good for me have so many good players pushing for places. It keeps the competition high and it can only be good for Ghana.

"The best at every time will be put forward to represent the nation. Our target is to qualify and we need our best players on the field to work towards that," the Ghana coach said.

For Appiah, every player will be given an equal opportunity with Ghana also scheduled to play Liberia in a friendly in Monrovia, three days after the Malawi clash.

“We are playing Malawi on Saturday and on Tuesday we are travelling to Liberia to honour a friendly game.

“We have assembled 24 [players] because some of the players I will use for the Malawi game may not be used for the Liberia game because there are some other players that I need to assess,” Appiah said.

“That’s the reason behind why I called that 24 [players].”

Ghana plays Malawi over two legs in the final round of qualifying for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

The winner over both legs will reach the finals of next year's tournament to be hosted by South Africa.