VVS Laxman takes charge of India's men's team at the Asian Games as Gambhir stays home

The Sports Ministry's coaching list confirms Laxman will take India's men to Aichi-Nagoya while Gambhir stays back for the West Indies one-day series

VVS Laxman will coach India's men's cricket team at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, with head coach Gautam Gambhir remaining with the senior side at home.

The appointment was confirmed by the list of coaches and support staff released by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for the Indian contingent.

Laxman, the BCCI's Director of Cricket at the Centre of Excellence, will be assisted by Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadeep Ghosh.

A calendar clash rather than a demotion

the arrangement follows directly from India's schedule, which puts two commitments on top of each other.

The cricket competition at the Asian Games begins on 24 September, while India's home one-day series against the West Indies starts on 27 September.

The Games themselves run from 19 September to 4 October, with both the men's and women's tournaments played as T20 cricket.

The West Indies tour runs across September and October and takes in Twenty20 internationals as well as the one-day series.

Gambhir stays with the senior squad for that tour, and Laxman travels with the Asian Games party.

The squad going to Japan

India named a single T20 squad this week covering both the Afghanistan series and the Games.

Shreyas Iyer captains it, with Tilak Varma as his deputy, and the group includes Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi and Arshdeep Singh.

Teenage batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi keeps his place.

Four players were picked subject to fitness clearance: Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Sanju Samson returns after missing India's tour of Zimbabwe in July, and Varun Chakravarthy is back from the injury that ruled him out of the same series.

Before Japan, the squad plays Afghanistan in three T20 internationals in Delhi on 13, 15 and 17 September.

Familiar ground for Laxman

This is not a first assignment of its kind for him.

Laxman coached the men's side to the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, on the sport's first appearance at the event.

India's women won gold at the same Games, giving the country both titles on debut.

Muzumdar stays with the women's side

The ministry list keeps the women's coaching group unchanged.

Amol Muzumdar continues as head coach, with Aavishkar Salvi as bowling coach and Munish Bali as fielding coach.

Harmanpreet Kaur's side will defend the title they won at Hangzhou.

A review meeting on the same day

The appointment surfaced while the BCCI's senior leadership was meeting in Mumbai.

Gambhir, Laxman, Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill and Iyer attended in person, alongside president Mithun Manhas and secretary Devajit Saikia, with chief selector Ajit Agarkar joining by video.

The brief was an evaluation of the senior men's team across all three formats and the identification of areas to improve.

The meeting was called after India's recent white-ball results away from home, including a 2-0 T20I series defeat in Ireland in June that ended a run of 16 unbeaten series, followed by a loss in England.

It had been pushed back by India's two-Test tour of Sri Lanka.

Injury and workload were on the agenda, including the fitness timelines of Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, along with planning for the 2027 ODI World Cup.

The one-day futures of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja were also discussed, as were the New Zealand tour and a home Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Coordination between the selection panel, the coaching staff and the Centre of Excellence was also on the agenda.

The meeting ended without an official BCCI briefing.Laxman will now lead a second Asian Games campaign, with India defending both cricket gold medals won at Hangzhou.

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