Laxman takes charge as India enter the Asian Games at the quarter-final stage

India will play their first cricket of the 2026 Asian Games in a knockout match, with VVS Laxman in charge and a gold medal three wins away

Shreyas Iyer's side meet Afghanistan in the second quarter-final of the Asian Games Men's Cricket Competition at Korogi Sports Park on Monday, in a match that starts at 10:30 IST. It is India's opening fixture of the tournament.

Seeding is the reason for that. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were held out of the preliminary groups and enter at the quarter-final stage, so the defending champions arrive in Japan with no competitive cricket behind them. Afghanistan have come through Group A.

The team is also without the coach who normally travels with it. Gautam Gambhir has remained in India with the ODI squad, whose series against the West Indies opened at Greenfield International Stadium on Sunday after India chose to bowl, and VVS Laxman has taken the Asian Games assignment in his place.

Straight into a knockout

Ten teams entered the men's tournament, which began on 24 September and closes with the medal matches on 3 October, all of it played as Twenty20 cricket in Aichi prefecture.

Six lower-seeded sides were drawn into preliminary groups, with the top two in each going through to join the four seeded teams in the last eight. The arrangement spares India three group matches, and it also means the first ball they face in the competition comes in a game they cannot afford to lose.

Their visible preparation has been an indoor net session in Aichi-Nagoya, filmed and released by the BCCI, with Laxman overseeing it.

Laxman in for Gambhir

Laxman heads the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru and has the job because the two India sides are in the field at the same time, on different continents.

He has done it before. Laxman coached the men's team to gold at Hangzhou in 2023, the title India are defending here, and took an interim turn as head coach on the Zimbabwe tour in July 2026.

The overlap runs the length of the tournament rather than a day of it. India's ODI series against the West Indies ends in Mullanpur on 3 October, the same day the Asian Games medals are decided.

Bumrah among a young squad

Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh lead the pace attack, and Tilak Varma is vice-captain. Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan and Shivam Dube carry most of the batting.

Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi give Iyer three frontline spin options, with uncapped leg-spinner Vipraj Nigam a fourth. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is the youngest player in the party.

The squad has already been reshaped once. Yash Thakur was called in after Harshit Rana injured a hamstring, and a side strain has left Varun Chakaravarthy's availability in doubt.

What the women's gold showed

India's women have already won on these grounds, retaining their title with a 147-run win over Sri Lanka in the final and taking the country's first gold medal of the Games.

Smriti Mandhana made 79 from 45 balls and Richa Ghosh 49 from 22 in a total of 216 for 3, and Sri Lanka were bowled out for 69 inside 16 overs.

Spin did most of that. Deepti Sharma took three wickets, and Shafali Verma, Shreyanka Patil and Sree Charani took two apiece — a return that explains why the men's squad has been picked as heavily for spin as it has.

Three wins in six days

Pakistan play Hong Kong in the other quarter-final on Monday. Sri Lanka meet Nepal and Bangladesh play Malaysia a day later, with the semi-finals on 1 October.

India need three wins from those six days to keep the title, against a side that has already had the benefit of playing itself in.

India and Afghanistan meet in the second quarter-final at Korogi Sports Park on Monday, with the winner going through to the semi-final on 1 October.

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