Veteran star Harmanpreet Kaur is set to lead the Indian Women’s Team in the upcoming Asian Games 2026 tournament. Women in Blue will be defending their gold medal in Aichi-Nagoya in Japan, with the event set to kick off on 19th September. Team India had beaten Sri Lanka in the finals of the last Asian Games by 19 runs to win the gold.
Smriti Mandhana has been appointed as the vice-captain of the side. The team consists of players who were part of the recent T20 World Cup in England. Yastika Bhatia has been dropped, with G. Kamalini being added to the squad. Injured spinner Shreyanka Patil has also been included, but subject to fitness.
The RCB star had injured herself in the game against Netherlands while trying to stop a single. 23-year-old twisted her ankle and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. If the player doesn’t get fit in time, then the board will be looking at a possible replacement player. Prema Rawat who was drafted into the squad for the World Cup doesn’t feature in this squad.
Indian team face disappointing exit from the World Cup
After winning their first two games, the Indian side stumbled against South Africa to lose their first game of the campaign. A win over Bangladesh followed this to keep their semi-final hopes alive. ODI World Champions had to beat Australia after the Proteas won their final league game earlier on Sunday.
Despite scoring 170 on the board, it was the chasing side led by Sophie Molineux who won the game and eliminated their opponents from the final four race. Shree Charani yet again did her best with the ball claiming two wickets but that wasn’t enough.
Speaking at the end of the game, 37-year-old India skipper said “If I have to think about the entire tournament, we didn’t do well against good teams. Against the best teams, your best should come out. I think we need to rethink about that. Sometimes we’re in the game, but in the last few overs we concede too many runs. And when we’re chasing, we’re not able to score those runs. I think it’s been happening for quite a long time.”
India Women’s squad for the Asian Games 2026
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana. Shafali VermaJemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, G Kamalini, Bharti Fulmali, Shree Charani, Renuka Singh ThakurKranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Nandni Sharma, Shreyanka Patil (Subject to fitness)
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