EXPLAINED: Why Team India have qualified straight to knockouts of Asian Games 2026 cricket tournament

Team India men’s and women’s team will go through straight to the quarterfinals in the Asian Games 2026 tournament in Japan in September this year.

Published: July 24, 2026, 2:25 PM IST

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Neeraj Chopra with India men’s cricket team at Asian Games 2023 edition. (Photo: IANS)

Shreyas Iyer’s Team India will look to defend their Asian Games gold medal in cricket which they had won in 2023 in Hangzhou, China. Both men’s and women’s cricket team had won the Asian Games gold medal, three years back. The Indians will now look to defend their crown and have received a big boost in this bid as both the teams have qualified directly into the knock-out stages – the quarterfinals.

Apart from India, other top Asian nations like arch-rivals Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have also been given a straight entry into the quarterfinals of the Asian Games 2026 which will be held in Aichi, Nagoya from September 24. The four seeded teams will be joined in the quarterfinal stage by four other teams, with the draw announced on Thursday.

The unseeded teams will be Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal and Oman and will have to fight in the first round to join the top four.

The road to Asian Games 2026 Gold is officially set!

The top four seeds — India , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , and Bangladesh — receive direct entry into the quarterfinals, while the remaining teams battle it out in the group stage for the final knockout spots. ⚔️

Will… pic.twitter.com/wmoM18OApA

— Possible11 (@Possible11team) July 24, 2026

The draws and groups of the Asian Games 2026 were announced on Thursday for both the men’s and the women’s tournaments. While the men’s edition will see 10 teams in contention for the gold medal, the women’s section will feature eight teams.

The women’s tournament will start with the quarter-final fixtures – India vs Japan, Bangladesh vs China, Sri Lanka vs Malaysia and Pakistan vs Thailand. The competition will run from September 17 to 22.

The men’s edition – from September 24 to October 1 – will see Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal in Group A and Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman in Group B in the opening round. The top two sides from each these groups will proceed to the knockouts to take on the direct qualifiers.

All matches will be played in Nagoya prefecture in Japan and in the T20 format. The final of the men’s edition had been washed out after Afghanistan played 18.2 overs and India, by virtue of being the higher-seeded team, were awarded the gold medal winners. This time around the squad under Shreyas Iyer will also feature record-breaking youngster Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the tournament.

In the women’s event, India had beaten Sri Lanka by 19 runs in the final.

India men’s squad for the 2026 Asian Games: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (VC), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

India women’s squad for the 2026 Asian Games: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (Vice-Captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (WK), G. Kamalini (WK), Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil*, Radha Yadav, Nandni Sharma.

* Subject to fitness