The men's teams of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have gained direct entry into the knockouts of the Asian Games 2026 in September, while Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal and Oman will fight in the first round to join the big four.
The draws and groups of the Asian Games were announced on Thursday for both the men's and the women's tournaments. While the men's edition will see ten teams in contention, the women's edition will feature eight teams.
The women's tournament will start with the quarter-final fixtures: India vs Japan, Bangladesh vs China, Sri Lanka vs Malaysia and Pakistan vs Thailand. The competition will run from September 17 to 22. The men's edition - from September 24 to October 1 - will have Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal in Group A and Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman in Group B in the opening round. The top two sides from each group will proceed to the knockouts to take on the direct qualifiers.
All matches will be played in Nagoya in Japan and in the T20 format.
India had won the gold medal for both men and women in the 2023 Games. The final of the men's edition had been washed out after Afghanistan played 18.2 overs and India, by virtue of being the higher-seeded team, were awarded the gold medal.
In the women's event, India had beaten Sri Lanka by 19 runs in the final.
