Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: The Indian men's cricket team will start their campaign at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Games on September 28, while the women's cricket team will play their first match on September 18. Being at the top of the qualifying table, the Indian men's and women's cricket teams will directly start their fight for the Asiad title from the quarterfinals. The men's team will be led by Shreyas Iyer and the women's team will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur. Both teams were champions in Hangzhou.
The Indian women's cricket team will face Japan in the quarterfinals. Apart from Japan, the Indian women's cricket team will be competing for gold at the Karogi Athletic Park. The quarterfinal opponents of the Indian men's cricket team depend on who finishes second in Group A between Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal. Apart from the Indian team in men's cricket, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have also been included in the qualifying list. The semi-finals of the women's cricket team are on September 20, the bronze medal and final matches on September 22. The semi-finals of the men's cricket team are on October 1, the bronze medal and final matches on October 3.
The 73-member Indian athletics team, led by Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and Paris Olympics silver medalist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, will participate in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. Neeraj is set to make a hat-trick of gold wins at the Asian Games on Japanese soil. The 16 Indian athletes who won medals at the 2023 Hangzhou Asiad in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games to be held from September 10 to October 4, will have an additional challenge to maintain their success.
Rohit Yadav will be with Neeraj in the javelin throw at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. The Indian javelin thrower recently caught the eye by throwing the javelin at a distance of 87.68 meters at the Bhubaneswar World Athletics Silver Level Continental Tour meet. The Indian team includes Hangzhou Asian Games champion Avinash Sable, Tejinder Pal Singh Tur, Parul Choudhury, Annu Rani. They have a new challenge to win a medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.
Avinash Sable, who won gold in the men's 3000m steeplechase and silver in the 5000m, is in the running for a medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Games after being out of competition for a long time due to a major injury. Tejinder Pal Tule is also in the running for a medal in the shot put event. Parul Choudhury has been selected in the women's 1500m, 5000m and 3000m steeplechase in the Asian Games. Rajesh Ramesh, a member of the men's team that won gold in Hangzhou, has been selected again.
Hangzhou medallists Jyoti Yaraji, Murali Sreeshankar, Tejaswin Shankar, Gulvir Singh, Mohammad Afzal, Ansi Sojan, Praveen Chitravel, and Vithya Ramraj are also in the Indian team for Aichi-Nagoya. Tejas, who recently suffered two stress fractures in his left foot at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, has been selected for the 2026 Asian Games in the 110m hurdles.
The Indian team won 29 medals at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, including 6 gold, 14 silver and 9 bronze. India will aim to surpass that tally in the Aichi-Nagoya Games.