The cricket schedule for the 2026 Asian Games has finally been released, and it comes with a big twist for fans hoping to see India take on Pakistan. The two rivals can only meet once, and only if both teams manage to reach the top four in the men’s competition.
Cricket will feature at the Asian Games for the fourth time, after earlier appearances at Guangzhou 2010, Incheon 2014 and Hangzhou 2023. This edition will be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, and both the men’s and women’s events will be played in the T20 format with full international status. All matches will take place at the Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi prefecture, so every game will happen at one venue.
India go into this edition as defending champions in both the men’s and women’s sections, and they will look to defend their title from 2023. Because of their strong past record, both Indian teams have been seeded directly into the quarter-finals, meaning they skip the early rounds completely.
When Will The Matches Be Played
The women’s tournament will run from September 17 to 22, while the men’s competition will take place from September 24 to October 1. According to another report, the men’s medal matches could stretch until October 3, so fans should keep an eye on official updates closer to the date. Matches on most days will be held in two slots, with the morning game starting around 5:30 AM IST and the second match beginning around 10:30 AM IST.
Men’s Competition Format Explained
In the men’s event, four teams have been given direct seeding into the quarter-finals because of their higher rankings. These four teams are India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This means all four sides will skip the group stage and go straight to the knockout rounds.
The other six teams will fight it out in a preliminary round, split into two groups of three. Group A includes Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal, while Group B has Hong Kong China, Malaysia and Oman. Only the top two teams from each group will move ahead to the quarter-finals, so these early matches will be important for the smaller teams trying to reach the main stage.
Here is how the men’s quarter-final line-up looks so far:
| Quarter-final | Seeded Team | Opponent |
| QF1 | India | TBD (from qualifying group) |
| QF2 | Pakistan | TBD (from qualifying group) |
| QF3 | Sri Lanka | TBD (from qualifying group) |
| QF4 | Bangladesh | TBD (from qualifying group) |
Why India vs Pakistan Depends On Results
Since India and Pakistan are placed in different quarter-finals, they cannot meet at that stage. The two teams can only face each other if both of them win their quarter-final matches and make it into the semi-finals, or if both reach the final. In simple words, an India-Pakistan clash in this tournament is not guaranteed and depends entirely on how both teams perform in the earlier rounds.
Women’s Competition Schedule And Format
Unlike the men’s event, all eight teams in the women’s competition have been placed directly into the quarter-finals, with no preliminary round. India will begin their campaign against hosts Japan in the first quarter-final.
The remaining women’s quarter-finals will see Sri Lanka play Malaysia, and Pakistan face Thailand, while Bangladesh will take on China. Here is the full picture:
| Stage | Match |
| Quarter-final | India vs Japan |
| Quarter-final | Bangladesh vs China |
| Quarter-final | Sri Lanka vs Malaysia |
| Quarter-final | Pakistan vs Thailand |
| Semi-final | Winner (India/Japan) vs Winner (Bangladesh/China) |
| Semi-final | Winner (Sri Lanka/Malaysia) vs Winner (Pakistan/Thailand) |
Just like in the men’s draw, Pakistan and India are on different sides of the women’s bracket too. This means, following the same logic as the men’s event, they could only meet in the final if both teams keep winning.
India’s Men’s Squad For Asian Games 2026
The BCCI has picked a strong group of players for the men’s team. The squad includes Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
This squad has a good mix of experienced players and young talent, which should give India good balance for a short T20 tournament. Bumrah’s presence in the bowling attack, along with spin options like Bishnoi, Axar and Chakravarthy, gives India plenty of variety to use depending on conditions in Japan.
India’s Women’s Squad For Asian Games 2026
On the women’s side, India will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur, with Smriti Mandhana serving as vice-captain. The rest of the squad includes Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, G. Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav and Nandni Sharma.
This team also blends experienced campaigners with fresh faces, giving India strong depth across batting, bowling and wicketkeeping options. With India defending their title from the 2023 Games, this squad will carry the responsibility of continuing that winning run in Japan.
What The Seeding Means For The Tournament
The seeding system used for this edition rewards teams based on their current standing in world cricket. By placing India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh directly into the quarter-finals, the organisers have made sure that only the strongest teams from the qualifying rounds get a chance to challenge them. This setup also protects the bigger teams from any early upset in preliminary matches, since they enter the tournament fresh at the knockout stage.
For teams like Afghanistan, Japan, Nepal, Hong Kong China, Malaysia and Oman, the preliminary round becomes extremely important, as only two teams from each group can move on. This adds pressure right from the start of the tournament for these six sides, since a single bad match could end their campaign early.
With the schedule now confirmed, cricket followers across Asia have a clear picture of how the road to the medal matches will look in both the men’s and women’s tournaments this September and October in Japan.
