Asian Games 2026 cricket schedule announced: Check out India vs Pakistan match date
The 20th Asian Games will take place in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4, 2026. Both the Indian men's and women's cricket teams will be in action at this event. The cricket schedule for the tournament has been released. The men's tournament will take place from September 24 to October 4, while the women's team will be in action from September 17 to September 26. The tournament was last held in Hangzhou, China, in 2023, where both the Indian men's and women's teams won gold medals. This time, both teams will step out to defend their titles as defending champions.
In the men's competition, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have been granted direct entry into the quarter-finals as top-seeded teams; group stage matches will be played before this. Group B comprises Hong Kong China, Malaysia, and Oman, while Group A includes Afghanistan, hosts Japan, and Nepal. A highly anticipated match between India and Pakistan is possible only if both teams secure a spot in the semi-finals. The group stage matches will be played from September 24 to 26. Following this, knock stage will commence. The quarter-finals will be played on September 28 & 29. Both semi-final matches will be conducted on October 1, while the medal match will take place on October 3.
In the women's event, matches will begin directly at the quarter-final stage. The Indian team will face Japan in the quarter-finals on September 17. The second quarter-final will be between Pakistan and Thailand on the same day. The winners of these two matches will face each other in the semi-finals on September 20. Additionally, there will be two other quarter-final matches—Sri Lanka versus Malaysia and Bangladesh vs China —with the winners facing each other in the semi-finals on September 20. The medal matches will be conducted on September 22.
The BCCI had announced both the men's and women's squads for the Asian Games 2026 a few weeks ago.
India Men’s squad: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vice-capt), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Jasprit Bumrah
India Women’s squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, G. Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil (subject to fitness), Radha Yadav, Nandni Sharma
