The fourth edition of cricket at the Asian Games will take place in Nagoya, in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture. The women’s final is scheduled for September 22, while the men’s competition will conclude on October 3.
Cricket will make its fourth appearance in the last five editions of the Asian Games. India enter the competition as defending champions in both the men’s and women’s cricket events. Afghanistan are looking to go one better after three consecutive silver medals. Afghanistan, meanwhile, will be hoping to finally claim gold after finishing with silver medals in the last three editions. Japan takes on Afghanistan to begin Group A while Hong Kong, China faces Malaysia over Group B. Matchday two sees Afghanistan back up to play Nepal and Hong Kong, China take on Oman, and on matchday three Japan faces Nepal and Malaysia meets Oman.
The women’s team beat Sri Lanka in the previous edition, while the men won gold after the final against Afghanistan was washed out by rain, with India awarded the title due to their higher seeding. India enter the tournament as defending champions in both the men’s and women’s categories after winning gold medals at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. Here’s all you need to know about the upcoming Asian Games 2026 cricket event: What are the Asian Games? The Asian Games is considered the second-largest multi-sport event in the world after the Olympics, bringing together top athletes from 45 countries across more than 40 sports every four years. The sport first featured at the continental event in 2010. Pakistan are multiple gold-medal winners on the women’s side (2010 and 2014), while Bangladesh (2010), Sri Lanka (2014) and India (2022) have claimed men’s tournament honors once each. Pakistan have won the women’s tournament twice, in 2010 and 2014. In the men’s event, Bangladesh (2010), Sri Lanka (2014) and India (2022) have each won the title once. Format And Qualification The men’s and women’s tournaments are not identical at the Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya, Japan. On the women’s side, hosts Japan drew India in the opener on September 17, with Pakistan’s fixture against Thailand on the other side of the draw held on the same day. The winner of Japan/India will take on the winner of the September 18 meeting between Bangladesh and China, while the Pakistan/Thailand winner meets the winner of the September 18 match between Malaysia and Sri Lanka. The two semi-finals will be played on September 20, with the bronze and gold medal matches on September 22. Preliminary stage action on the men’s side begins on September 24 with a match in each group over three days.
Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal make up Group A, while Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman take part in Group B. India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh have a first round bye and go straight to the quarter-final phase. On the women’s side, the tournament is a straight knockout competition with eight teams. Full Members of the ICC were granted automatic qualification for both men’s and women’s disciplines, as well as hosts Japan. Four teams (Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal and Oman) claimed spots in the men’s event via the qualifier, with China, Malaysia and Thailand sealing their spot for the women’s event. The Nisshin Cricket Ground lies in the middle of the Korogi Sports Park, in the outskirts of Nagoya. The venue ticked the boxes required of it during the recent East Asia-Pacific T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Qualifier, which acted as a test event for the upcoming Games. The wicket used is a revolutionary hybrid surface, with characteristics of play compared to pitches in Pakistan that offer both bounce and turn. “The outfield was really good and the pitch played well. “We also had a lot of media coverage and hundreds of people turned up for the event, seeing cricket for the first time and they seemed to enjoy it really well. It’s the first time that we’re going to have some Full Members come here and play cricket and I think one of the things that we want the local community to understand, realise or get excited about is knowing how big this is in cricket, and it’s on their front door. There are limited tickets available, so once these fixtures are set and the tickets are available internationally as well, they’re just going to go out, (be) sold out very quickly. Squads Four of the eight women’s teams have submitted their squads for the tournament, including hosts Japan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Men’s Squads Afghanistan: Darwish Rasooli (c), Mohammad Ishaq, Mohammad Akram, Hassan Eisakhil, Khalid Taniwal, Imran Mir, Faisal Shinozada, Najibullah Zadran, Farmanullah, Ismat Alam, Karim Janat, Nangyal Kharoti, Arab Gul Momand, Faridoon Dawoodzai, Abdollah Ahmadzai 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, Mohammed Saifuddin, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud. India: Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Japan: Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming (c), Charlie Hara-Hinze, Benjamin Ito-Davis, Alester Kadowaki-Fleming, Kohei Kubota, Jake Kusuda-Nairn, Wataru Miyauchi, Reo Sakurano-Thomas, Alex Shirai-Patmore, Shoma Sugaya-Slater, Declan Suzuki, Tsuyoshi Takada, Ibrahim Takahashi, Makoto Taniyama, Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake Nepal: Dipendra Singh Airee (c), Lokesh Bam, Kushal Bhurtel, Gulshan Jha, Sundeep Jora, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Kushal Malla, Sher Malla, Rohit Paudel, Lalit Rajbanshi, Aarif Sheikh, Aasif Sheikh, Nandan Yadav Oman: Sufyan Mehmood (c), Muzaffar Shiralkar, Faris Al Balushi, Issa Al Balushi, Mohammed Al Balushi, Nawed Al Balushi, Qais Al Balushi, Shuaib Al Balushi, Waheed Al Balushi, Wasim Al Balushi, Zubair Al Balushi, Abdul Jalil, Mohammed Othman, Sameer Othman, Ahmed Al Zadjali Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (c), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Arafat Minhas, Haider Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Saad Masood, Saim Ayub, Sufyan Moqim, Usman Khan
Fixtures Men’s Quarter-finals then begin on September 28, when India face the Group A runner-up and Pakistan take on the Group B runner-up. On September 29, Sri Lanka will play the winner of Group A and Bangladesh will meet the Group B winner. Semi-finals will be played on October 1, with the bronze and gold medal finals two days later. As per ICC, temporary stands are also up at the venue that can accommodate 2000 fans. Women’s Squads Bangladesh: Nigar Sultana (c), Nahida Akter, Sharmin Akhter, Dilara Akter, Marufa Akter, Shorna Akter, Juairiya Ferdous, Rabeya Khan, Fahima Khatun, Sultana Khatun, Sanjida Akter, Ritu Moni, Sobhana Mostary, Sharmin Sultana, Fariha Trisna India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, G Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav, Nandni Sharma Japan: Mai Yanagida (c), Erika Oda, Ahilya Chandel, Ayumi Fujikawa, Hinase Goto, Haruna Iwasaki, Shimako Kato, Ayaka Kato-Stafford, Elena Kusuda-Nairn, Akari Nishimura, Meg Ogawa, Kurumi Ota, Seika Sumi, Erika Toguchi-Quinn, Nonoha Yasumoto Pakistan: Fatima Sana (c), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Zafar, Eman Naseer, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Humna Bilal, Momina Riasat, Muneeba Ali, Nashra Sundhu, Saira Jabeen, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Tasmia Rubab, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani On the men’s side, six of the 10 squads have been named.
So, there’s huge positives first from the ground side,” Japan Cricket Association CEO Naoki Alex Miyaji told ICC Digital back in May at the East Asia-Pacific Qualifier.
First, the six-lowest seeded teams are split into two groups of three, with the top two teams in each progressing to the knockout stages. On the men’s side, the event is a 10-team tournament in two phases.
