Mohsin Naqvi, president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) will miss the final of the 2026 Asian Games due to prior commitments. The ACC took to X to confirm
that he won't travel to Japan for the gold medal match. Shreyas Iyer-led India will face the Men in Green in the final on Saturday (October 3). Since Naqvi is ACC's president, he would have presented the medals to the winning team. Not to forget, India didn't take the Asia Cup trophy from him after winning the tournament in 2025 and 2026. The Indian men's team didn't shake hands with the Pakistani players and decided against taking the winning trophy from Naqvi after defeating the 1992 World Cup champions in the final. Naqvi ran away with the trophy after the final. Naqvi was hell-bent on giving the trophy to Suryakumar Yadav and the presentation ceremony started after a one-hour delay. It was reportedly decided that an Emirates Cricket Board official would present the trophy to India. But Naqvi changed the plans after the ceremony started. The Indian women's team won the 2026 Asia Cup. The Women in Blue denied taking trophy from Naqvi and there was no trophy presentation. They too didn't shake hands with the Pakistani cricketers. Naqvi's stint as the ACC Chairman will end in April 2027.
India's road to the final
India's first game against Afghanistan was washed out due to rain. Since it was the quarter-final, India made it to the semi-final without playing a game. They registered a one-sided win over Sri Lanka in the knockout game.
India put on a big total of 169 in the challenging conditions and bowled out SL for a mere score of 45 to qualify for the gold medal match. kicked off their 2026 Asian Games campaign.
Squads:
India: Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Yash Thakur, Vipraj Nigam
Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (Captain), Maaz Sadaqat, Usman Khan(w), Saim Ayub, Hasan Nawaz, Abdul Samad, Arafat Minhas, Ahmed Daniyal, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Abrar Ahmed, Sufyan Moqim, Saad Masood, Ali Raza, Akif Javed, Haider Ali
