T20 cricket schedule of Asian Games in Japan released. In the matches to be held from September 17 to October 1, India-Pakistan encounter is possible only in the semi-finals or final. 4 teams including India have got direct place in the quarter finals.
Aichi-Nagoya (Japan): The schedule of cricket matches of the Asian Games to be held in Japan has arrived. This tournament will be played in T20 format and has got full international status. The schedule is such that defending champions India and Pakistan can face each other only in the semi-finals or finals.
The matches will take place between September 17 and October 1 at the Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi Prefecture. Women’s cricket will be played from 17 to 22 September and men’s cricket from 24 September to 1 October. This is the fourth time after 2010 (Guangzhou), 2014 (Incheon) and 2023 (Hangzhou), that cricket has been included in the Asian Games.
On the basis of seeding, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have got direct place in the quarter-finals. There will be first round matches for the remaining four places in the quarter-finals. Group A consists of Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal, while Group B consists of teams from Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Oman.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals. Since India and Pakistan have been placed in different pools directly in the quarter-finals, a match between them is not possible before the semi-finals or final.
In the women’s category, defending champions India will begin their title defense campaign against hosts Japan in the quarter-finals. The team that wins this match will face the winner of the match between Bangladesh and China in the semi-finals. In the other quarter-final matches, Sri Lanka will face Malaysia and Pakistan will face Thailand.
Indian men’s team for Asian Games: Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Verma, Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dubey, Varun Chakraborty, Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Indian women’s team for Asian Games: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shefali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper), G. Kamalini (wicketkeeper), Bharti Phulmali, Sri Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaur, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav, Nandini Sharma.