Asian Games 2026 Cricket Schedule, Squads and Broadcast Info

The men’s cricket competition at the 2026 Asian Games runs from 24 September to 3 October in Nisshin, Japan, with 10 teams playing 14 T20 matches for gold. It follows directly on from the women’s competition, which concluded on 22 September with defending champions India retaining their title.

Asian Games 2026 Cricket Schedule, Squad & Broadcast TV Channels

India go into the men’s competition as defending champions after their 2023 Hangzhou gold, but arrive without several first-choice bowlers. Varun Chakravarthy was ruled out with a side strain and replaced by Vipraj Nigam; Harshit Rana withdrew with a rectus femoris strain and was replaced by Yash Thakur; and Nitish Kumar Reddy has also been withdrawn from the squad to feature in India’s white-ball series against the West Indies.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir has framed India’s unusually large player pool this September and October — spread across the senior team, India A and a “Rest of India” side — as a selection advantage rather than a scheduling headache.

Several other nations have also opted to rest first-choice players. Sri Lanka’s 15-member squad, led by Sahan Arachchige, omits most of their regular T20I picks, while wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella returns to a Sri Lanka T20I squad for the first time since 2021. Afghanistan, too, have named a squad without regulars like Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi.

Schedule and Format

Teams were seeded using the ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings as of 23 July 2026, with the draw held the same day. The six lowest-seeded teams were split into two groups of three for a preliminary single round-robin stage from 24–26 September.

The top two from each group advance to the quarter-finals, joining the four highest-seeded teams, who received automatic byes straight into the last eight. From there, the tournament proceeds through quarter-finals and semi-finals to the bronze and gold medal matches on 3 October.

That structure accounts for the tournament’s 14 total matches: six in the preliminary round-robin, four quarter-finals, two semi-finals, and the bronze and gold medal matches.

Group A – Japan, Afghanistan, Nepal

Group B – Hong Kong, Malaysia, Oman

Venues

Every match in the tournament is played at the Kōrogi Sports Park (also referred to as Korogi Athletic Park) in Nisshin, near Nagoya, in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture — the same venue that hosted the entire women’s competition earlier in September.

Squads

India: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yash Thakur, Vipraj Nigam.

Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (c), Abdul Samad, Haider Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Saad Masood, Maaz Sadaqat, Saim Ayub, Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Ali Raza, Salman Mirza, Akif Javed, Arafat Minhas, Sufyan Muqeem

Bangladesh: Litton Das (c), Tanzid Hasan, Parvez Hossain Emon, Mohammed Saif Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Tawhid Hridoy, Musaddek Hossain Saikat, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Rishad Hossain, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Aliss Al Islam.

Afghanistan: Darwish Rasooli (c), Abdullah Ahmadzai, Mohammad Akram, Ismat Alam, Faridoon Dawoodzai, Hassan Eisakhil, Mohammad Ishaq (wk), Karim Janat, Faisal Khan, Nangyal Kharoti, Imran Mir, Arab Gul Momand, Farmanullah Safi, Khalid Taniwal, Najibullah Zadran.

Hong Kong: Yasim Murtaza (c), Babar Hayat, Anas Khan, Anshuman Rath, Ayush Shukla, Ehsan Khan, Hafeez Khan, Hussain Rajab, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Mohammad Hassan Khan, Mohammad Waheed, Nizakat Khan, Rana Nasrulla, Shahid Wasif, Shiv Mathur.

Japan (hosts): Kendel Fleming (c), Charles Hinze, Benjamin Ito, Wataru Miyauchi, Reo Sakurano, Alexander Shirai, Shoma Slater, Declan Suzuki, Ibrahim Takahashi, Makoto Taniyama, Lachlan Lake, Kohei Kubota, Tsuyoshi Takada, Jake Kusuda, Alester Fleming.

Malaysia: Muhammad Amir Azim, Sharvin Muniandy, Rahim Khan, Aslam Khan Malik, Syed Aziz Mubarak, Muhamad Syahadat, Amir Khan Malik, Muhamamd Akram, Muhammad Haziq Aiman, Virandeep Singh, Ainool Hafiz, Pavandeep Singh, Vijay Unni, Muhammad Wafiq, Azri Azhar

Nepal: Kushal Bhurtel, Sundeep Jora, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Rohit Paudel, Aarif Sheikh, Karan KC, Gulsan Jha, Nandan Yadav, Sompal Kami, Aasif Sheikh, Lokesh Bam, Sher Malla, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi

Oman: Abdul Jalil, Waheed Al Balushi, Issa Al Balushi, Zubair Al Balushi, Naveed Al Balushi, Faris Al Balushi, Ahmed Al Zadjali, Mohammed Osman, Muzaffar Shiralkar, Sufyan Mehmood, Mohammad Al Balushi, Wasim Al Balushi, Shuaib Al Balushi, Qais Al Balushi, Sameer Othman

Asian Games 2026 Live Streaming & Coverage Details

Cricket fans in India and its subcontinent regions will be able to watch all matches of the Asian Games 2026 on Sony Sports Network. Online viewers can watch live streams on the SonyLIV App.

For the United Kingdom, no official broadcaster has acquired the rights. But at SmartCric, you can find all the latest scores and match updates.

United States fans can watch the entire tournament on Willow TV via Sling TV. Meanwhile, Willow TV will also broadcast the event in Canada.

In Pakistan, PTV Sports to provide live coverage of the Asian Games 2026 on television screens. The live streaming will be available via Tapmad TV.

Below are the official broadcast partners for each country televising the Asian Games 2026 globally:

Players to Watch

Jasprit Bumrah (India): His inclusion in India’s Asian Games squad, alongside a congested international calendar, makes him one of the most closely watched fast bowlers in the competition, particularly given the recent injury withdrawals around him.

Shreyas Iyer (India): Captaining India at the Asian Games while continuing his role as India’s full-time T20I captain, Iyer’s leadership and form will be closely watched as India defend their 2023 gold.

Niroshan Dickwella (Sri Lanka): His recall to a Sri Lanka T20I squad for the first time since 2021 is one of the tournament’s more notable selection stories, and a strong showing could reopen a wider international door for the veteran wicketkeeper.

Recent Form

India enter the men’s competition after a successful defense of their women’s title just two days earlier, with the women’s team beating Sri Lanka by 147 runs — a comprehensive result that will add to expectations around the men’s squad as tournament favorites once again.

At the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou 2023, India completed a gold-medal double, winning the women’s final outright against Sri Lanka and taking men’s gold after a rain-affected final against Afghanistan could not be completed.

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