The Indian men’s and women’s teams will aim to defend their gold medals when they start their Asian Games 2026 campaign later this month. The quadrennial event is set to begin on September 19, while the cricket matches will take place from September 17 to October 3. This time, Shreyas Iyer will be leading the men’s side. As per a report, India have picked three net bowlers to train for the matches. Two of them come from Royal Challengers Bengaluru, while the other one is from Kolkata Knight Riders.
Pacer Rasikh Salam Dar and spinner Vicky Ostwal are the players picked from RCB to accompany the Indian cricket team in the nets, claimed a report in The Indian Express. It added that KKR fast bowler Kartik Tyagi will also be with the RCB duo in Japan.
In another update regarding the Asian Games 2026, the Indian men’s cricket team will face Japan in a T20I on September 22 to mark the 75th anniversary of India-Japan diplomatic relations.
The T20I against Japan will provide the Indian team with valuable match practice ahead of the quadrennial sporting showpiece.
“The Japan Cricket Association (JCA) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are delighted to announce that the men’s teams from each nation will play a T20 International match to launch the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of India-Japan Diplomatic Relations,” said the BCCI in a statement.
The teams will compete for the Suzuki Cup at the Sano International Cricket Ground in Tochigi Prefecture.
“The match will be the first step of ‘Sport 75’, an initiative that stems from an agreement reached during a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and aims to promote human exchanges and cooperation between India and Japan in the field of sports, taking note of India’s ambition to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2036,” the statement added.
India men’s squad for Asian Games 2026: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
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