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Nagoya (Japan): The draw for the men’s and women’s categories as well as the groups for the cricket competition of the Asian Games 2026 have been announced. In the men’s category, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have got direct place in the knockout stage based on their ranking.

Whereas the teams of Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal and Oman will compete in the first round. The four teams that advance from the preliminary stage will face the top teams that have already qualified in the knockouts.

10 teams will participate in men’s category, 8 teams in women’s category.

A total of 10 teams will participate in the men’s cricket tournament of the Asian Games 2026, while 8 teams will compete for the title in the women’s category.

The women’s cricket competition will start directly with the quarter-final matches. As per scheduled matches:

-India vs Japan
-Bangladesh vs China
-Sri Lanka vs Malaysia
-Pakistan vs Thailand

The women’s competition will be held from 17 to 22 September.

men’s tournament schedule

The men’s cricket competition will be played from 24 September to 1 October.

In the first round:

Group A: Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal
Group B: Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman

The top two teams from both the groups will advance to the knockout stage, where they will face top teams like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

All matches will be played in T-20 format in Nagoya, Japan.

India will try to save the gold medal

This tournament will be an opportunity for India to defend its title. Both the Indian men’s and women’s teams had won gold medals in the Asian Games 2023.

In the men’s final, the match could not be completed due to rain. At that time India was declared the winner on the basis of better seeding. The women’s team won the gold medal by defeating Sri Lanka by 19 runs in the final.