The Director of Cricket at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE), VVS Laxman, is set to coach India’s men’s cricket team during the Asian Games 2026 to be played in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
Laxman will be assisted by Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadeep Ghosh during the tournament. Previously, Laxman also coached the Indian men’s team at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, where India won the gold medal.
Meanwhile, India head coach Gautam Gambhir will be with the senior team for the ODI series against West Indies, with the first ODI scheduled to be played on September 27.
The cricket competition at the Asian Games will begin on September 24, with India set to play its opening match four days later.
VVS Laxman is no stranger to the Asian Games, having previously guided India to the gold medal at the 2023 edition in Hangzhou. He has also stepped in as India’s interim head coach during multiple bilateral T20I assignments, including the series against Australia, South Africa, Ireland and Zimbabwe.
Amol Muzumdar will continue as the head coach of the India Women’s team. Muzumdar will be assisted by bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi and fielding coach Munish Bali.
The India Women’s team will enter the competition at the quarterfinal stage and face Japan, while the men’s team will take on the second-placed side from Group A, comprising Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal.
The tournament format will see India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka begin their campaigns from the quarterfinal stage.
The remaining teams have been split into two groups. Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal are in Group A, while Group B consists of Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Oman. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals.
India will defend the men’s T20 Asian Games title under captain Shreyas Iyer, with 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Suryavanshi also part of the squad. The Indian women’s team will also defend its title and will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur.
India Cricket Team for Asian Games 2026: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Suryavanshi