India and Pakistan could be on course for another high-profile T20 clash at the 2026 Asian Games.
The cricket schedule for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games has been released, revealing that the arch-rivals can meet only once in the men’s competition.
Cricket returns to the Asian Games for the fourth time after Guangzhou 2010, Incheon 2014 and Hangzhou 2023, but this will be just the second time India is taking part.
Both the men’s and women’s tournaments will be played in the T20 format with full international status. The women’s competition is scheduled from September 17 to 22, while the men’s tournament will run from September 24 to October 1 at Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
Why India and Pakistan cannot meet earlier?
As defending champion India, along with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, has been seeded directly into the men’s quarterfinals.
The remaining four quarterfinal spots will be decided through a preliminary stage featuring six teams split into two groups.
Group A: Afghanistan, Japan, Nepal
Group B: Hong Kong China, Malaysia, Oman
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarterfinals, where they will join the four seeded nations.
Since India and Pakistan have been placed on opposite sides of the knockout bracket, they cannot face each other before the semifinals. If one team is eliminated before then, the much-anticipated contest will not take place.
India’s men’s squad
Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Women’s team begins title defence against Japan
India, the defending women’s champion, has also received a direct entry into the quarterfinals and will begin its campaign against host Japan.
If Harmanpreet Kaur’s side overcomes Japan, it will face either Bangladesh or China in the semifinals. The other quarterfinal matches pit Sri Lanka against Malaysia and Pakistan against Thailand.
India’s women’s squad
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 and Nandni Sharma.
Published on Jul 24, 2026
