Asian Games 2026: Can India Men’s And Women’s Cricket T…

The 2026 Asian Games will see both the Indian men’s and women’s cricket team defend their gold medals that they won in 2022 edition in Hangzhou.

Shreyas Iyer and Harmanpreet Kaur made it into the quarterfinals of this edition directly. It promises to a closely fought affair as both teams would look to defend their Asian Games gold medal. 

Men’s Section 

Shreyas Iyer will lead the side with explosive batting unit. Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, and Ishan Kishan would consist of strong batting unit.  The pace bowling unit comprises of Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy. Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar would consist of the spinner’s options. 

Indian team will play the runners up of Group A from the premlinary round including Afghanistan, Nepal & Japan. On the other hand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman consist of Group B. 

Indian team will face the runners of Group A on 28^th September 2026 in quarterfinals 2 played at Korogi Sports Park, Nisshin. 

Shreyas Iyer led side will face a tough challenge from both Bangladesh and Afghanistan if qualified from the first round. Bangladesh side has quality batters including Litton Das, Tanzid Hasan, Saif Hasan, Tawhid Hridoy and game changing attacking batters. 

In the bowling unit, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud would be a big challenge who can change the course of the game with their variations.Jasprit Bumrah will bolster the bowling line-up in the first six overs and create an impact with death overs which would restrict opponent batters to a modest total. The Indian team would feature in the 3 T20Is matches against Afghanistan starting from 13^th September 2026 before coming to the Asian Games 2026 as the defending champions. 

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi would be looking to create an impact if given a chance in the playing XI with Abhishek Sharma & Sanju Samson as the opening pair. Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy would look to create an impact with both bat and ball helping Team India register wins. 

Men’s Cricket Team For Asian Games 2026 

Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma (VC), Shreyas Iyer (C), Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakavarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh. 

Women’s Section 

The Indian women’s team will look to defend their gold medal under the leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur. They qualified for the quarterfinals directly as they will face Japan in the 4^th quarterfinals played on 18^th September 2026. 

Kaur and Co won the 2022 Asian Games title defeating Sri Lanka by 19 runs in a low scoring thriller. Sri Lanka will be a major threat for the Indian team. Under the captaincy of Chamari Atapattu, they can give Kaur and Co to take away the gold medal.  It promises to be a good contest with top quality players from Asia in Japan. Kaur and Co would look for dominating performance against the likes of Lanka, Bangladesh which could provide some fight. 

Women’s Cricket Team For Asian Games 2026 

Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Varma, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Deepti Sharma, Bharti Fulmali, Radha Yadav, Richa Ghosh (WK), G Kamalini (WK), Shree Charani, Kranti Goud, Arundhati Reddy, Nandani Sharma, Renuka Singh Thakur, Shreyanka Patil.

Jemimah Rodrigues has been ruled out of the Asian Games 2026 due to an injury which is a massive blow for the defending champions. Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Varma, Richa Ghosh, Harmanpreet Kaur would play a key role in providing big runs with the bat keeping the momentum going. 

Shree Charani, Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil would look to create a huge impact with the ball keeping the scoreboard under check. Renuka Singh Thakur, Kranti Goud, Arundhati Reddy, Nandani Sharma would look to showcase their talent in the first six overs and take early wickets putting pressure on the opponent batters. 

The Indian women are currently featuring in the 2026 Asia Cup played in Dubai where they reached the semi-finals and hoping to continue their dominating run when they will face other Bangladesh or UAE in the semi-finals that will take place on 10^th September 2026. It promises to be an exciting Asian Games as both men’s and women’s team will be looking for defending their gold medals. 

With top quality players in both men’s and women’s section, the Indian team are the favorites to retain their gold medals against Asia’s best. 

Both Indian men’s and women’s have experienced players that can change the course of match with respective skills. It will depend on their form and ability to prove their worth in Japan and hope to bring glory by winning the gold medals. 

It will be a huge moment for both Indian teams to win gold medals and make sure that they do wonders with lots of experience in T20Is format.