Asian Games 2026 Cricket Schedule Announced

The official cricket schedule for the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, has been unveiled, with India set to defend its gold medals in both the men’s and women’s competitions. All matches will be played in the T20 format and will carry Full International Status, making the tournament a significant event in the international cricket calendar.

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The cricket competition will be held at Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi Prefecture. The women’s tournament will take place from September 17 to September 22, 2026, while the men’s tournament is scheduled from September 24 to October 1, 2026.

This marks the fourth time cricket has featured at the Asian Games, following previous editions in Guangzhou (2010), Incheon (2014), and Hangzhou (2023).

India Receives Direct Quarter-Final Berth

In the men’s competition, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh have received direct seeding into the quarter-finals based on their rankings, eliminating the need to play the preliminary round.

The remaining four quarter-final spots will be decided through group-stage matches:

Group A: Afghanistan, Japan, Nepal

Group B: Hong Kong China, Malaysia, Oman

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals.

The tournament structure also means India and Pakistan can face each other only once, with a possible meeting in either the semi-final or final, adding further excitement to the competition.

Indian Women Begin Campaign Against Japan

The defending champion Indian women’s team has also secured direct qualification to the quarter-finals and will begin its title defence against host nation Japan.

The women’s quarter-final fixtures are:

• India vs Japan
• Bangladesh vs China
• Sri Lanka vs Malaysia
• Pakistan vs Thailand

The winner of India vs Japan will advance to the semi-final to face the winner of Bangladesh vs China.

India Announces Strong Squads

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced balanced squads for both competitions.

Men’s Squad: Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Tilak Varma (Vice-Captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Suryavanshi.

Women’s Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (Vice-Captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, G. Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Shri Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaikwad, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav and Nandini Sharma.

With direct qualification and experienced squads in both categories, India will enter the tournament as one of the strongest contenders to retain its Asian Games cricket titles.

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