Later this month, the Indian men’s squad will compete at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, under the leadership of VVS Laxman, Director of Cricket at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE). The Indian women’s team’s head coach will remain Amol Muzumdar.
Laxman will be coaching the Indian men’s team at the Asian Games for the second time. In 2022, the squad won the gold medal in Hangzhou, China. According to a statement from the Sports Ministry, Laxman’s support coaches for the Asiad would be Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, and Subhadeep Ghosh.
The Indian women’s team is led by Harmanpreet Kaur, while the men’s team will be captained by Shreyas Iyer. Aavishkar Salvi, the bowling coach, and Munish Bali, the fielding coach, support Amol Muzumdar, the head coach of the Indian women’s team. For the West Indies ODI series starting on September 27, Gautam Gambhir will continue to serve as head coach of the senior men’s side.
On September 17, the Asian Games cricket competition will get underway. A week later, on September 24, the men’s competition will begin, with India’s opening match scheduled for September 28.
Aavishkar Salvi, the bowling coach, and Munish Bali, the fielding coach, will support Muzumdar in his role as head coach of the women’s squad for the Asian Games. India, the reigning champions, will play Japan in the quarterfinals of the women’s competition on September 17.
India’s initial match in the men’s draw is scheduled for September 28 against the second-place team from Group A, which includes Afghanistan, Japan, and Nepal. The women’s team will play Japan in their quarterfinal match after entering the tournament at the quarterfinal stage.
India’s Men Asian Games 2026 Squad:
Captain Shreyas Iyer, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Among the noteworthy additions to the 15-person group is Sooryavanshi, a teenage batting sensation.
India’s Women Asian Games 2026 Squad:
Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Gunalan Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav, Nandani Sharma, and captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Both teams will try to hold onto the crowns that India won in Hangzhou in 2023.
