India will begin their bid to defend both cricket gold medals at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan next monthThe cricket competition will be played at the Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi Prefecture, with the women’s tournament scheduled from September 17 to 22 and the men’s event from September 24 to October 3.
India won gold in both the men’s and women’s cricket competitions at the 2022 Asian Games in HangzhouThey will now return to the continental event as defending champions, with both teams seeded directly into the quarterfinals.
The women’s team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, will be the first Indian side in actionIndia will face hosts Japan in the quarterfinal on September 18 at 10:30 AM ISTThe match will be played at 2 PM local time in JapanA win will take India into the semifinals on September 20, while the bronze medal match and final are scheduled for September 22.
The women’s competition has eight teams divided into two groupsIndia, Japan, Bangladesh and China are in Group A, while Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand make up Group BIndia’s quarterfinal against Japan means there is no group-stage game for the defending champions.
The men’s competition will have 10 teamsIndia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been given direct entry into the quarterfinals based on their ICC T20I rankingsAfghanistan, Japan and Nepal are in Group A, while Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman are in Group B.
Shreyas Iyer’s Indian team will play its first match on September 28India will take on the second-placed team from Group A at 10:30 AM ISTThe group matches will be played from September 24 to 26, with the semifinals scheduled for October 1 and the final on October 3.
India men’s squad and schedule
India Men’s squad: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
