The cricket schedule for the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, has been released. India are the defending champions in both the men’s and women’s categories as cricket makes its fourth appearance at the Games after previously featuring at Guangzhou 2010, Incheon 2014 and Hangzhou 2023.
Both the men’s and women’s competitions will be played in the T20 format and will carry full international status. The women’s tournament will take place from September 17 to 22, while the men’s competition is scheduled from September 24 to October 1. Matches will be played at the Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi prefecture.
In the men’s competition, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been seeded and will enter directly at the quarter-final stage.
The remaining four spots will be decided through a preliminary round featuring six teams divided into two groups.
Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal make up Group A, while Hong Kong China, Malaysia and Oman have been placed in Group B. The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarter-finals.
This means rivals India and Pakistan can only play one game against each other — either in one of the semi-finals or the final.
| Men’s Cricket at Asian Games 2026 | |
|---|---|
| Group A | Afghanistan, Japan, Nepal |
| Group B | Hong Kong China, Malaysia, Oman |
| Quarterfinals | India vs TBD |
| Pakistan vs TBD | |
| Sri Lanka vs TBD | |
| Bangladesh vs TBD | |
The women’s team are also seeded and will begin their title defence against hosts Japan in the quarter-finals.
The winners of the India-Japan clash will face either Bangladesh or China in the semi-finals. The other quarter-final fixtures will see Sri Lanka take on Malaysia, while Pakistan will face Thailand.
| Women’s Cricket at Asian Games 2026 | |
|---|---|
| Quarterfinals | |
| India | Japan |
| Bangladesh | China |
| Sri Lanka | Malaysia |
| Pakistan | Thailand |
| Semifinals | |
| India/Japan | Bangladesh/China |
| Sri Lanka/Malaysia | Pakistan/Thailand |
Men’s and women’s India squads
Men’s asian games 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, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Women’s asian games 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, Nandni Sharma.
